(Bloomberg) -- US copper prices collapsed by more than 19% in minutes after US President Donald Trump excluded the most widely imported form of copper from his planned import tariffs.
Tariffs of 50% will apply to imports of semi-finished copper products from Aug. 1, but not to imports copper ore or cathodes, the White House said on Wednesday.
The move sent shockwaves through the global copper market, after months in which US copper futures have been trading far above the rest of the world in anticipation of Trump’s import tariffs.
US copper futures on Comex tumbled by more than 19% after the announcement, the largest intraday fall on record. Until Wednesday afternoon, US copper prices had been trading around 28% above benchmark copper futures on the London Metal Exchange, as traders anticipated the tariff would be applied to all refined metal imports.
