The US President remains focused on metals. In addition to already having general 50% tariffs in place on steel and aluminum, in June he threatened to do the same on copper. Earlier this month, he said that these tariffs on imports of the industrial metal would indeed take effect, which caused a price spike as many US buyers began to accelerate their purchases. Now, he has stated that the implementation of this tariff will go ahead on August 1st – but not on all copper. And this is what made the difference and caused the metal to plummet.

Donald Trump has announced that he will impose tariffs of 50% on all semi-finished copper products and  high-copper derivative products   entering the United States, but has decided not to apply this tariff to refined copper, thus sparing much of the North American industry from potentially higher costs.

The White House chief therefore decided that the new tariffs will not apply to copper scrap or copper raw materials such as copper ore, concentrates,"matte", cathodes and anodes.

With this decision, metal prices continue to plunge 20.01% to $4.5075 per pound. Even so, year-to-date it still manages to remain positive, with a gain of 9.86%.

Along with the tariffs, Trump's executive order also includes measures to support the domestic copper industry—notably requiring that 25% of high-quality copper scrap (and some forms of raw copper) produced in the US be sold domestically. To this end, he invoked the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law that allows the President to urge certain industries to increase production of materials critical to national security.