Trafigura Group executed orders to withdraw more than 51,000 tons of copper from London Metal Exchange (LME) warehouses located in the United States and Asia on Friday, marking the largest single withdrawal volume recorded on the LME since 2013.
The withdrawals were prompted by a widening premium of New York Comex copper futures over LME spot prices, a situation that has persisted for most of the past year.
The premium is attributed to expectations that the Trump administration may impose tariffs on copper imports, encouraging traders to deliver copper into the US market to capture arbitrage gains.
Record volumes of copper were shipped to the United States in the previous year, allowing market participants to exploit the price differential; the current pull‑out signals renewed momentum in this arbitrage trade.
The action reflects a broader trend of traders moving physical copper to benefit from price differentials between the two major exchanges, potentially influencing LME inventory levels and futures pricing dynamics.
