Snapshot: The U.S. Copper Supply Chain

With increasing global focus on critical minerals in the energy transition, copper remains a foundational material — essential, undervalued, and heavily relied upon across nearly every sector of modern infrastructure. From residential wiring to utility-scale transformers, copper plays a central role in keeping systems powered and connected.

As regulatory pressures shift and the 50% tariff on imported copper approaches (set to take effect on August 1, 2025), it’s essential for stakeholders across energy, construction, and manufacturing to understand where copper comes from — and how dependent the U.S. is on international suppliers.

This snapshot underscores copper’s critical role in the systems we depend on daily — and how concentrated the U.S. supply chain is at a time when policy, pricing, and infrastructure goals are rapidly converging.