U.S. President Donald Trump's 50% tariff on copper has placed a record premium on prices of the metal in the United States that is likely to ease over the coming months as a stockpile created by traders anticipating the levy works through the system.

U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of a proposed 50% tariff on copper imports has raised concerns in Chile and Peru, which together account for nearly 40% of global copper production.

“The U.S. has been sucking in lots of copper that it didn’t really need from around the world,” Albert Mackenzie is a copper analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. President Trump had signaled that the tariffs were coming months ago, prompting many U.S. buyers to stockpile copper ahead of time.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday his administration would soon be imposing a new 50% tariff on copper, though he left the exact details unclear. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC that the tariffs would likely take effect later this month or early August.

U.S. President Donald Trump has launched a global trade war with an array of tariffs that target individual products and countries. Trump has set a baseline tariff of 10% on all imports to the United States,