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Copper trades at record highs as smelters face collapsing treatment fees
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange hit $14,779 a ton, while the 2026 benchmark treatment and refining charge this year has fallen to zero dollars a ton.
Copper is holding record levels as the economics of processing copper ore are deteriorating for smelters, underscoring the shift in control within the industrial metals supply chain, according to OilPrice.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange reached an all-time high of $14,779 a ton on Tuesday, marking its fourth straight session of gains before easing toward about $14,630 on Wednesday morning. The metal is up close to 18% this year, while COMEX copper in the US is trading near $6.75 a pound.
Despite the price strength, smelter margins are not improving. OilPrice reports the 2026 benchmark treatment and refining charge, the fee miners pay smelters to turn concentrate into finished metal, has settled at zero dollars a ton this year, the lowest annual benchmark on record, down from $21.25 in 2025 and $80 in 2024.
Spot rates have also turned sharply lower, dropping to roughly negative $127 a ton by midyear, meaning smelters are effectively paying miners to process their own ore. OilPrice links the imbalance to China, which smelts about half the world’s copper and has driven more than 90% of global smelting capacity growth since 2005, but faces mine supply that has not kept pace with capacity built in expectation of continued growth.
Latest closeCopper $6.776 ▲2.7%