Copper Price per kg (United States)

The price has reached its highest level of the past year, $13.92 per kg contained.

Its 12-month range runs from a low of $11.01 to a high of $13.92.

It is +35.1% over the past year and +44.5% over five years.

Copper (Cu) is second only to silver in electrical conductivity, and roughly two-thirds of it ends up carrying electricity. Power grids, building wiring, motors and transformers are its core markets, and electrification multiplies them: an electric car contains several times the copper of a petrol car, wind and solar farms are copper-intensive, and every new data centre needs heavy power distribution. Construction and plumbing take most of the rest.

Other uses

• Plumbing, roofing and heat exchangers
• Brass and bronze alloys
• Printed circuit boards and electronics
• Antimicrobial surfaces in hospitals

Demand for copper is broad and rising: construction, power networks, electronics and transport, with electrification adding grids, electric vehicles, renewables and data centres on top. Supply is the constraint. New mines take a decade or more to develop, ore grades at existing mines are falling, and a few very large pits in Chile, Peru and the Democratic Republic of Congo carry a big share of world output, so disruption at one of them moves the market. US buyers also face their own layer of pricing, as tariff policy can open a gap between US and international prices.

What moves the price

• Chinese demand and the health of global manufacturing
• Mine disruptions, strikes and grade declines
• US tariff policy and the gap between US and international prices
• Grid, electric vehicle and data centre investment

Copper's modern history runs from the commodity supercycle peak of 2011 through a long slump to 2016, then up again with electrification. Prices set new records in 2021 and again in 2024, as investors and industry bet on demand from grids, electric vehicles and data centres meeting slow-growing mine supply.

In 2025 the prospect of US tariffs drew record volumes of copper into the United States and opened an unusually wide gap between US and international prices, a reminder that the US price has its own dynamics. As of October 2026, the Stockatomics benchmark price is $13.92 per kg contained.

Chile is the world's largest copper miner, followed by Peru, the Democratic Republic of Congo, China and the United States. China is by far the largest refiner and consumer. In the US, copper is mined mainly in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, and the country imports a large share of its refined copper.

Copper was added to the US critical minerals list in 2025 and is on the EU critical raw materials list. Electrification is raising demand faster than new mines can be built, and disruption at a handful of very large mines can move the world price. The United States mines copper but relies on imports for much of its refined supply, and its smelting capacity has shrunk.

Stockatomics publishes a monthly US benchmark price for copper in US dollars per kg contained, reading as of October 2026. The price is for contained copper metal traded into the United States, so it can move differently from exchange prices quoted elsewhere. It is not a price for concentrate, and it is not a treatment charge.

Converting the price

• Per tonne: multiply the price per kg by 1,000
• Per pound, the unit used on the US futures market: multiply the price per kg by 0.4536