Reuters survey: Copper price expected to break through $11,000/ton for the first time, analysts caution against speculative overheating.

A Reuters survey shows that after copper prices soared to a new all-time high, analysts have raised their 2026 copper price expectations for the first time to over $11,000 per ton, but they remain cautious about speculation overheating, predicting that the average price for the year will be significantly lower than the peak. According to the median forecast of 31 analysts, the average price of LME spot copper in 2026 is expected to be $11,975 per ton, a 14% increase from the $10,500 forecast in the previous survey in October last year. This is the highest annual unanimous expectation in the history of Reuters surveys, and the first time it has surpassed the $11,000 mark. StoneX analyst Natalie Scott-Gray said, "We expect copper prices to enter a new, higher normal range, but looking at the whole year, it will be difficult to sustain prices above $13,000 per ton." Analysts have unanimously raised their expectations for the supply-demand gap in the global copper market from 150,000 tons in the previous survey to 238,500 tons, and they predict that the gap will narrow to 116,000 tons in 2027.