Copper Just Entered “Catch Me If You Can” Mode
Copper Blasts Through All-Time Highs as Supply Tightens and Global Markets Scramble for Metal
Copper blew through its previous records and surged past $11,210 a ton, marking one of the most dramatic rallies the market has seen in years. Futures on the London Metal Exchange jumped as much as 2.5 percent on Friday, adding fresh urgency to an already-tense global metals market. This isn’t a simple risk-on bounce. It’s a collision of tight supply, escalating arbitrage flows, and outright turmoil on major trading platforms.
The spike came hours after a chaotic freeze in copper futures on the CME’s Comex exchange, where a technical disruption halted trading for much of the morning. When trading finally resumed, the rally accelerated. The message from the market was unmistakable. Copper is in short supply, and every hiccup only tightens the screws further.
Shanghai Sounds the Alarm
This week’s industry gathering in Shanghai added even more fuel to the fire. Miners, traders, and smelters warned that disruptions at major operations worldwide are pushing the market into a structural deficit. Declining ore grades, project delays, and thinning inventories dominated the conversations.
Then came the statement that electrified the room.
Kostas Bintas, the influential metals chief at Mercuria, renewed his bullish call and warned that massive shipments of copper into the United States are draining the rest of the world’s stockpiles. He described the situation bluntly, calling it “the big one” and cautioning that if the trend continues, global markets could be left without copper cathodes entirely.

