FinNotes

Copper reached $13,483.75 on May 1, 2026, the highest level since January 1992. In the International Copper Study Group’s May 2026 bulletin, the group reported that the average LME copper price for January-February 2026 was $13,030 per tonne, compared with $9,145 in the same period of 2025, while the average Comex copper price rose to 587.03 cents per pound from 439.22 cents.

The same May 2026 data showed that world mined copper production in January-February 2026 was 0.4% higher than a year earlier. World refined copper production rose 2.5% year over year to 4.701 million tonnes in the first two months of 2026, while world refined copper usage was essentially unchanged at 4.391 million tonnes.

International Copper Study Group figures also showed world refined copper stocks at the end of February 2026 at 2.168 million tonnes, up from 1.774 million tonnes at the end of 2025. On the group’s reported balance, the refined copper market posted a 310,000-tonne surplus in January-February 2026, placing the May 1 price spike alongside a period in which published global supply-and-demand data still showed rising inventories and a measured surplus early in the year.