Copper price today

Copper price today

The LME official cash price for copper was $14,030.00 per tonne, or $6.3639 per pound, on November 9, 2026, up 0.48% from November 6. The live quote above tracks the front-month COMEX copper future during trading hours.

Two benchmarks: COMEX and LME

COMEX, part of CME Group in New York, trades copper futures quoted in US cents per pound. One contract covers 25,000 pounds of Grade 1 copper cathode, and the front-month price is the reference for physical copper in North America.

The London Metal Exchange quotes copper in US dollars per metric tonne. One lot is 25 tonnes of Grade A cathode. The LME publishes official prices every trading day, and supply contracts around the world refer to them.

The two prices usually move together, because traders buy where copper is cheaper and deliver where it is dearer. The gap between them, the COMEX premium or discount, reflects delivery location, warehouse stocks and the cost of moving metal between regions.

Cash and three-month prices

The LME publishes a cash price, for delivery in two business days, and a three-month price. When cash trades above three-month, the market is in backwardation, a sign that nearby metal is scarce. When cash trades below three-month, the market is in contango, which reflects the cost of storing and financing metal. On November 9, 2026, LME cash traded $175.00 per tonne above the three-month price, a market in backwardation.

What copper is used for

Copper conducts electricity and heat better than any other common metal, resists corrosion and can be recycled repeatedly without losing performance. Most copper goes into building wiring and plumbing, power grids, transformers and cables, industrial machinery, vehicles, electronics and household appliances. Electric vehicles, renewable power and data centers use more copper per unit than the technologies they replace. How AI data centers use copper.

What moves the copper price

Supply comes from a small number of large mines, and new mines take many years to plan, finance and build, so output responds slowly to higher prices. How long it takes to build a copper mine. Ore grades at older mines decline over time, and operating disruptions can remove supply at short notice.

Demand follows construction, grid investment, manufacturing and electrification, with China the largest consumer. Exchange inventories, shown in the stock chart above, signal how much metal is immediately available. Because copper is priced in US dollars, a weaker dollar tends to support the price for buyers elsewhere. Why there is a copper supply gap.

Copper price history since 2008

The LME monthly average fell to $3,071.98 per tonne in December 2008 during the financial crisis, then recovered to $9,867.60 in February 2011. It eased to $4,462.75 in January 2016, rose to $10,237.59 in March 2022 and reached $14,532.48 in October 2026, the highest monthly average in the series. Annual averages and every trading day since 2008.

Physical copper and CuTT

Toto Finance is developing CuTT, tokenized copper designed so that one token represents one pound of COMEX Grade 1 copper cathode held in COMEX-approved US warehouses. Physical redemption is designed in lots of 25,000 pounds, the size of one COMEX contract. Read about tokenized copper.