Copper dazzle dull margins for EV, consumer and engineering goods

Copper’s recent rally to record-highs has sent waves of concern reverberating through the makers of several consumer-focussed and industrial products such as electric vehicles (EVs), consumer gadgets and appliances, electric wires and engineering goods, among others.

Futures of the metal on the London Metal Exchange (LME), the benchmark for global prices, hit an all-time-high of $14,779 per ton on September 8. While prices have marginally declined from that high, they remain elevated. At the time of writing Wednesday afternoon, copper futures were trading about 0.9% higher over its previous close at $14,167.67 per ton.

Prices have rallied in the past couple of weeks as purchasers in the United States rush to stock up on the metal, anticipating U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposing steep tariffs on the import of refined copper.