Trafigura Group just walked out of London Metal Exchange warehouses with more than 51,000 tons of copper, worth over $700 million. It’s the largest single-day copper withdrawal from the LME in over a decade, and it left exchange inventories at levels not seen since Richard Nixon was in the White House.

The commodities trading giant pulled the metal primarily from warehouses in the US and Asia, chasing what it described as trading opportunities in the American and Chinese markets. At roughly $13,660 per ton, this wasn’t a casual shopping trip. It was a strategic land grab on one of the most important industrial metals on the planet.

What happened and why it matters

The withdrawal on May 22 represents the biggest single-day copper delivery from the LME since 2013.

A US tariff ruling on copper is expected in late June 2026, and traders have been scrambling to position inventory on both sides of the Atlantic ahead of whatever policy changes emerge.

Since the US tariff probe kicked off in February 2025, Comex copper stocks have surged by 550%. Traders have been flooding American warehouses with metal in anticipation that tariffs could make it significantly more expensive to import copper into the US later. Trafigura’s LME withdrawal fits neatly into this pattern: move copper now while the cost structure still makes sense.

The broader copper chess match

The interplay between LME and Comex markets has created a cross-market dynamic that experienced traders know well. It happened in 2021. It happened in 2023. And it’s happening again now, only at a larger scale.

China adds another layer of complexity. As the world’s largest copper consumer, Chinese demand patterns have an outsized influence on global pricing. Trafigura explicitly cited China alongside the US as a destination for its trading strategy.

What this means for investors

When visible inventories on the world’s primary copper exchange sit at their lowest point since 1974, the market’s buffer against supply shocks is essentially gone.

The 550% surge in Comex stocks suggests that a significant amount of copper has simply been relocated rather than consumed. If the tariff decision comes in softer than expected, or gets delayed, traders who pre-positioned metal in the US could start unwinding those positions.

The late June tariff ruling is the next major catalyst. The gap between LME and Comex pricing will be the key metric to monitor, because that spread tells you exactly how the market is pricing the probability and severity of incoming tariffs.