The current copper spot price assists in getting a grasp on the current day’s copper trading. Commodity prices are dictated by global supply and demand which. Therefore, from an investing view point, must be looked at in long-term trends.
 

Copper Price History

Copper price history, in recent years,looks bleak if you want the price to rise. From 2006, when copper price was $4, to 2016, when copper price was $2, you can see a literal drop of 50% in value.

The key to copper price is to look at the rise and fall over many years. See the chart below:

Copper price, historically, is on the rise. From 2000 to 2017 there is nearly a 6x increase in copper value. As a result, it is important to take a look at the price of copper dating even further back:

Industry creates a demand for copper. Copper is used in many parts of development from structure to electrical and component needs. As a basic rule, the population of the world is increasing and, therefore, industrial needs are increasing on a longer time frame. However, demand increasing is not the only reason for an increase in copper price. Though copper has been replaced in many manufacturing products, copper is still the leading metal used for electrical applications.
 

Mining Copper and Copper Price

Mining copper is also a very critical factor when it comes to the price of copper. As technology becomes more advance, mining becomes easier so technically prices should fall. However, this is not the case.

The easy to reach copper gets mined first. So, naturally, that copper is already mostly gone. So even though mining technology has gotten significantly more advanced compared to years past, the copper available still to be mined is much harder to physically get to. Also, there is another major factor in copper price.

Copper Price impact from War

Copper price is impacted by war as well. In short, war leads to a heavy demand for weapons and ammunition. Most ammunition is made from a brass composite which is predominately copper. This brass nearly matches the same copper content of a copper penny: 95% copper and 5% zinc. World War II required heavy quantities of copper. This led to a shortage in available copper.

Steel was less important than copper during World War II. As a result, 1943 resulted in steel pennies instead of copper pennies. This is why it is hard to find a penny from 1943. Most have rusted. The demand for copper has shifted across the world.

Copper in China

China has been expanding its infrastructure. This expansion has increased explosively in the past few decades at an increasing pace. Of course, there are downturns in this development, however, overall, the demand has been steadily increasing. Furthermore, China is a contender to dominate as a world power, and wants to keep this growing appearance going regardless of world economic declines.

In short, China is a major buyer of copper.

Copper Futures Market

The copper futures market, aka stock market, has a major impact on copper price. The price of copper in the futures market is based upon digital currency. And there is more copper traded in the stock market, paper contracts, than physical exists in the world. In short, people with big money can move the price of copper up or down through manipulation.

Coinage, Copper, and Inflation

Inflation effects copper through reviewing the coinage systems around the world. Coins, predominantly, have been made of copper for centuries. As a result of devaluation of currency, inflation, commodity prices have risen.

Rather than continue to mint coins at higher costs with copper, countries have sought to alternatives such as zinc or steel. Countries are failing to succeed at finding alternatives by reviewing research projects such as the United States Coin Modernization Act. The United States Mint attempted to find an alternative to making the penny out of zinc and the nickel out of copper. The results were that there is no better method to produce these coins more cheaply. In conclusion, if countries are failing to find alternatives, it’s a good bet that the demands for copper will continue to rise, and, so will copper price.