Copper Weekly

Episodet

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  China Stocks Hit Multi-Year Lows Ahead of Golden Week 30.09.2026 19min

  Copper Weekly returns for episode eighteen, recorded on the road from Geneva as Albert wraps up a week of smelter visits and financial meetings across Austria and Switzerland. Prices held relatively firm despite some pressure, with China's approach to Golden Week, a fast-growing but opaque Russian concentrate story, and rising strike tensions in Chile all in focus. In this episode: Steady Prices Ahead of Golden Week — With stocks in China at their lowest since January 2024 and import premiums...
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  China Demand Returns: Copper Rushes Back Towards Record Highs 22.09.2026 14min

  Copper Weekly returns for episode seventeen, with copper clawing back much of the ground it lost the week before and pushing back towards its all-time high. Mike and Albert dig into China's role in the recovery, question whether a widely reported mine supply contraction really holds up, and look ahead to a potentially pivotal week of US-China diplomacy. In this episode: China Leads the Bounce — Import premiums into China hit a four-year high, with nearly 30,000 tonnes of LME stock cancelled i...
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  Tariff Delay Talk Sends Copper Prices Lower 15.09.2026 19min

  Copper Weekly is back for episode sixteen, and after months of near-relentless record highs, the market finally took a breather. Mike and Albert unpack a sharp pullback driven by tariff-delay speculation, hotter US inflation data, and a dollar rally, before digging into why the underlying story of an artificial, US-driven tightness remains fully intact. In this episode: Why Prices Fell — A Reuters report suggesting US copper tariffs could be pushed back until after the November midterms, comb...
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  Copper's Record Rally: Is It Actually Justified? 08.09.2026 18min

  Copper Weekly returns for episode fifteen, with the LME three-month price notching yet another all-time high. But this week Albert takes a step back and asks the harder question: is any of this actually justified? A candid, somewhat blunt discussion follows on frothy sentiment, record US imports, and why H1 production disruptions were already priced in long before the headlines caught up. In this episode: Another Record, But Why? — With copper up over 50% since November, Albert makes the case...
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  A Calm Between Two Storms as Volatility Looms 02.09.2026 21min

  Copper Weekly is back for episode fourteen, with Mike returning fresh from leave to a market that, on the surface, has been trading quietly sideways. Beneath that calm, though, Albert digs into a fascinating stock picture, a wider look across the base metals complex, and a candid warning about volatility ahead. In this episode: Stocks in the Wrong Place — LME on-warrant material is heavily concentrated in Asia, yet total exchange stocks tell a very different story once you factor in the US, w...
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  LME Stocks Rise and Fall, Chile's Mining Picture Assessed by Supply Analyst Carlos Piñeiro 26.08.2026 21min

  Copper Weekly returns for episode thirteen. This week we are joined by Carlos Piñeiro a principal supply analyst at Benchmark, based in Chile. Albert and Carlos talk about rapidly moving LME stocks, AI-related copper demand, and take advantage of Carlos’s expertise to dig into the supply side of the market. In this episode: Significant amounts of LME copper have been cancelled from the LME in the last few days; this comes following lots of material being re-warranted and put back on the LM...
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  A Third Week of Record Highs; LME Tightness Bites 18.08.2026 19min

  Copper Weekly returns for episode twelve, marking a third consecutive week of all-time highs. But this time the story isn't just about price, it's about shape. Mike and Albert dig into a dramatic backwardation on the LME, what it reveals about nearby tightness, and why the rally already looks to be unwinding by the time of recording. In this episode: A Different Kind of Record — This week's record was set on the cash price rather than the three-month, as the LME slipped into a steep backwarda...
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  LME Copper Hits New Records as Treatment Charges Collapse 11.08.2026 24min

  Copper Weekly is back for episode eleven, and the headlines write themselves: the LME cash price has now spent six consecutive days above $14,000/t, its longest run at that level ever. Mike and Albert dig into what's driving the record run, why treatment charges have collapsed to fresh lows, and lay out detailed scenarios for how the US tariff situation could play out. They also answer listener questions for the first time. In this episode: A New Kind of Record High — The LME cash price has b...
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  Copper Nears All-Time Highs as US Imports Surge 04.08.2026 18min

  Benchmark's Copper Weekly is back for episode ten. Mike and Albert unpack a week of standout price action, record-breaking US import flows, and a mining equities picture that's turning heads across the industry. In this episode: Approaching All-Time Highs — Copper pushed close to $14,000/t during recording, its strongest level since early June. Albert explains why weather disruption in Chile has shifted sentiment despite limited material impact, and why falling stocks across the LME, SHFE and...
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  Call to Arms or Cause for Alarm? Codelco's Scott Crooks on the Supply Gap 28.07.2026 20min

  Copper Weekly returns for episode nine — and this week the show does something different. For the first time, Mike and Albert are joined by a special guest: Scott Crooks, principal analyst at Codelco, who brings deep experience from both research houses and one of the world's largest copper producers. Together they tackle one of the most talked-about and most misunderstood concepts in the market: the copper supply gap. In this episode: What the Supply Gap Really Is — Benchmark's base case put...
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  Falling Stocks, Rising Prices and a Return to Fundamentals? 21.07.2026 26min

  Copper Weekly returns for episode eight — Mike and Albert unpack a week where copper prices pushed to their highest since early June. The big theme? For once, the market appears to be moving on genuine fundamentals rather than sentiment alone, as stocks draw down sharply across both the LME and China. In this episode: Back to Fundamentals — Copper's cash price pushed above $13,800/t for the first time in weeks. Albert explains why this rally looks different, driven by real stock declines rath...
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  Chile’s Production Challenges Continue: Supply Analyst Ivan Llancas Joins to Discuss Chile's Mining Industry 15.07.2026 28min

  Copper Weekly returns for episode seven — This week, we are joined by Ivan Llancas, senior supply analyst, based in Chile. Albert and Ivan discuss the challenges facing mining in Chile, alongside falling LME on-warrant stock, continuously high US copper imports, and flaring Iran-US tensions, and what all that means for the copper market. In this episode: Iran-US Tensions Flare Up — The fragile peace between Iran and the US was broken over the weekend, with strikes traded between the tw...
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  Antofagasta, Spot-Linked Pricing and the Benchmark Shake-Up 07.07.2026 25min

  Copper Weekly returns for episode six — and while the US tariff saga rumbles quietly in the background, the real focus this week is a potential structural shift that could reshape how the entire copper concentrate market is priced. Mike and Albert take a deep dive into Antofagasta's reported move towards spot index-linked treatment charges and what it could mean for the benchmark system that has underpinned the market for decades. In this episode: Still Waiting on Tariffs — No official word o...
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  Silence on Section 232: Reading Between the Lines 01.07.2026 24min

  Copper Weekly is back for episode five — and this one was meant to be the big tariff reveal. Mike and Albert deliberately delayed recording to Wednesday July 1st to capture the long-awaited US Section 232 announcement on copper. The result? Silence. No announcement, no tariff, no clarity. So instead, the pair use the occasion to step back and examine the deeper logic behind US copper protectionism. In this episode: The Non-Announcement — June 30th came and went with nothing. Albert explains w...
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  The End of the Benchmark? Antofagasta Could Shake the Concentrate Market 23.06.2026 21min

  Benchmark's Copper Weekly returns for episode four — and after last week's peace deal optimism, the mood has shifted once again. Fresh tensions over the weekend have left the market in wait-and-see mode, while a potentially landmark shift in how the concentrate market is priced has set tongues wagging across the industry. In this episode: A Fragile Peace and a Sideways Market — The Strait of Hormuz briefly reopened over the weekend before tensions flared again. Albert explains why copper has ...
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  Acid, Arbitrage and What the Iran Deal Means for Copper 16.06.2026 19min

  Benchmark's Copper Weekly is back for episode three — and this week there is one story that dominates the conversation above all else. The Trump-Iran peace announcement sent shockwaves through financial markets, and copper was no exception. Mike and Albert unpack what it means for prices, sentiment and the physical supply chains that underpin copper production. In this episode: The Peace Deal and Copper Prices — When the US-Iran peace announcement landed, copper pushed up sharply and the doll...
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  Noise or Signal? Reading Copper's Latest Moves 09.06.2026 18min

  Benchmark's Copper Weekly is back for episode two — and with host Mike Finch holding the fort in London and analyst Albert reporting live from Washington DC, this week's conversation covers a market where macro forces are firmly in the driving seat. With copper prices easing back slightly from last week's levels, Mike and Albert unpack whether the recent equity sell-off and Middle East re-escalation represent genuine fundamental reassessment or simply short-term noise in what remains a histor...
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  State of Copper: The Structural Shifts Redefining the Market 03.06.2026 30min

  Welcome to Copper Weekly – Benchmark's brand-new podcast cutting through the noise of global copper markets. In this inaugural episode, host Mike Finch and Copper Analyst & Market Reporter, Albert Mackenzie, sit down to do something a little different: instead of diving straight into the week's moves, they zoom out and ask the bigger question — why is copper where it is, and what got us here? In this episode: Structural price highs – What's really behind copper's elevated pricing regime, ...