Ulaanbaatar
Copper Prices Up 31.1 Percent
Economy
Ulaanbaatar, January 6, 2026 /MONTSAME/. In 2025, copper prices surpassed analysts’ forecasts, rising above USD 9,000 to reach USD 11,768 per ton.
At the beginning of 2025, copper traded at an average of USD 8,919 per ton. From February, the price increased to USD 9,329 per ton and, by the end of the year, reached the projected 2025 level. Although copper prices closed 1.1 percent lower on the final trading day of 2025, the annual increase marked the strongest growth since 2009.
In the near term, expectations that supply shortages will intensify and demand will exceed production are seen as the main drivers of further price gains.
With prices rising by 42 percent in 2025, copper was named the best-performing industrial metal on the London Metal Exchange.
Uncertainty remains over short-term demand prospects due to slowing economic growth in the People’s Republic of China, the world’s largest consumer of copper. Nevertheless, driven by the global energy transition, expectations of rising demand have enabled copper prices to maintain strong upward momentum.
Analysts forecast that copper prices could reach USD
13,000 per ton by the second quarter of 2026. They have also warned that
global copper supply could face a shortfall of up to 450,000 tons in 2026.
