{"id":551233,"date":"2026-06-24T04:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T04:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/551233\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T04:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T04:46:19","slug":"the-copper-crunch-inside-the-us-china-battle-for-a-critical-global-supply-chain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/551233\/","title":{"rendered":"The copper crunch: inside the US-China battle for a critical global supply chain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">As China and the United States compete for leadership in AI, energy and other strategic sectors, a quieter but no less important contest is taking place further down the supply chain: the race to secure copper.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The humble metal has become one of the most vital commodities of the 21st century, powering the servers, systems and cooling infrastructure that support artificial intelligence as well as the batteries used in electric vehicles and the electronics guiding modern weapons.<\/p>\n<p>That growing importance risks fuelling geopolitical tensions. <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/howard-lutnick?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick<\/a> is expected to deliver an updated assessment of the market to the White House by June 30, after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order last year to revive America\u2019s domestic industry.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The report will include an update on the necessity of new tariffs on refined copper imports, following a recommendation by Lutnick in a similar report last year. At that time, the commerce secretary suggested duties of 15 per cent to be enacted on the first day of 2027, rising to 30 per cent a year later.<\/p>\n<p>If approved, these tariffs would be imposed on an <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/global-economy\/article\/3317571\/surprise-us-copper-tariff-tests-mettle-chinas-vast-refining-industry?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">existing 50 per cent tariff<\/a> on semi-finished copper products and intensive derivative items, levied in August with other measures designed to encourage domestic production and investment.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cA single foreign producer dominates global copper smelting and refining, controlling over 50 per cent of global smelting capacity and holding four of the top five largest refining facilities,\u201d the White House wrote in a February 2025 order, which opened an investigation into copper imports under Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As China and the United States compete for leadership in AI, energy and other strategic sectors, a quieter&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[174],"tags":[291,8011,1793,79,381,36812,356,179,18,20366,15809,19,17,236154,236153,123233,32211,384,2709],"class_list":["post-551233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-ai","tag-arizona","tag-beijing","tag-business","tag-china","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","tag-donald-trump","tag-economy","tag-eire","tag-goldman-sachs","tag-howard-lutnick","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kamoa-kakula","tag-las-bambas","tag-london-metal-exchange","tag-peru","tag-united-states","tag-washington"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116803271818884296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}