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The price of copper has hit a fresh all-time high above $12,000 U.S. a ton as mine outages and trade disruptions linked to tariffs cause global supply shortages.

Copper's price is now up 36% in 2025 and on pace for its biggest annual increase since 2009.

The red industrial metal was last trading at $12,044 U.S. a ton on the London Metal Exchange, a record high that extends a rally that has been ongoing for most of this year.

The possibility that U.S. President Donald Trump will place tariffs on copper has been a central factor driving prices higher.

U.S. imports of the metal have surged as manufacturers stockpile copper and try to get ahead of potential duties.

The impact of tariffs has pushed the price of copper higher even though demand has deteriorated in China, which consumes about half the world's supply of the metal.

Analysts expect copper's price to continue rising as greater volumes of the metal are shipped to the U.S. to front run potential tariffs.

Beyond possible tariffs, there have been severe disruptions on the supply side with outages at mines in the Americas, Africa and Asia prompting warnings that the market is in a major deficit.

In a recent note to clients, Deutsche Bank (NYSE: $DB ) warned that output from the world's largest copper miners is likely to decline 3% this year and could fall again in 2026.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley (NYSE: $MS ) are even more dire, warning that the global copper market will face its most severe deficit in more than 20 years during 2026.

Morgan Stanley expects copper demand to exceed the available global supply by about 600,000 tons next year and sees shortfalls worsening from there.

Citigroup (NYSE: $C ) has warned clients that copper's price could hit $15,000 U.S. in the coming year as factors such as a weak U.S. dollar and further interest-rate cuts come into play.