Top 10 Copper Exporting Countries 2025 — With Q1 2026 Update

Key Takeaways: Top Copper Exporting Countries 2025 + Q1 2026

• Q1 2026 saw copper price records: COMEX hit US$6.61/lb and LME hit US$13,842.50/t on January 29, 2026, per Investing News Network's Q1 2026 copper review, reshaping shipment economics.
• Kazakhstan was the #1 copper exporting country in 2025 in yTrade-covered data, with $22.69B of HS 74 shipments — driven almost entirely by refined copper cathodes and unwrought refined copper (HS 7403.11 + HS 7403.19 = 99.3% of value).
• DR Congo (DRC) ranked #2 in 2025 at $18.82B, then overtook Kazakhstan to take #1 in Q1 2026 at $6.49B as Tenke Fungurume, Kamoa-Kakula, and Kisanfu ramped output.
• Chile ranked #3 in 2025 at $17.18B, anchored by Codelco's $9.19B in shipments — the single largest exporter footprint on the leaderboard.
• India is the #4 outlier at $16.60B, exporting copper foil and copper strip rather than raw cathodes — its top HS4 is HS 7410.11 (copper foil) at 34.1% of national value.
• Refined copper cathodes (HS 7403.11) dominate four of the top six — Chile (90.1%), DRC (82.8%), Kazakhstan (66.7%), and Peru (66.9%) — meaning the global cathode flow is highly concentrated.
• Top 10 copper exporting countries 2025 (yTrade ranking by HS 74 USD value): Kazakhstan, DR Congo, Chile, India, Mexico, Peru, Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam.

All trade data below is sourced from yTrade's customs-direct datasets, pulled at the HS Chapter 74 level (HS 7401–7419 — copper and articles thereof). yTrade aggregates Bill of Lading shipment records across 60+ origin countries; Zambia, Australia, Poland, and China are not in the export-origin coverage and therefore are excluded from this ranking.

Top 10 Copper Exporting Countries in 2025: Kazakhstan, DRC, Chile Lead Market

The 2025 top 10 copper exporting countries combined for $107.05B of HS 74 shipments in yTrade's BoL data. The pool is dominated by three resource-rich economies (Kazakhstan, DRC, Chile) which together accounted for $58.69B (54.8% of the top 10), followed by an industrial cluster (India, Mexico, Peru) which added another $34.39B (32.1%), and a Southeast Asia + Russia tail (Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam) at $13.90B (13.0%).

Rank 2025	Country	ISO	HS 74 Exports (USD)	% of Top 10
1	Kazakhstan	KAZ	$22.69B	21.2%
2	DR Congo	COD	$18.82B	17.6%
3	Chile	CHL	$17.18B	16.0%
4	India	IND	$16.60B	15.5%
5	Mexico	MEX	$9.47B	8.8%
6	Peru	PER	$8.32B	7.8%
7	Russia	RUS	$4.07B	3.8%
8	Indonesia	IDN	$3.59B	3.4%
9	Malaysia	MYS	$3.17B	3.0%
10	Vietnam	VNM	$3.07B	2.9%
Total	—	—	$107.05B	100.0%

The structural read of this ranking is that copper export dominance is split into two very different value chains. Kazakhstan, DRC, Chile, and Peru are upstream cathode-and-anode economies whose exports are tied directly to mine and smelter throughput.

India, Mexico, Malaysia, and Vietnam are downstream semi-fab economies whose exports are tied to electrical OEM, PCB, HVAC, and data center cabling demand. Indonesia and Russia sit in between — both are smelter-refined cathode exporters with growing downstream wire footprints. Buyers using this leaderboard for sourcing should choose countries by product class first (cathode vs wire vs foil vs scrap) and only then by total export value.

Kazakhstan: #1 Copper Exporter in 2025, Valued At $22.69B

Kazakhstan led the 2025 yTrade copper export ranking at $22.69B of HS 74 shipments, with refined copper cathodes and unwrought refined copper combined at 99.3% of value. Kazakhstan's copper mine output in 2025 was 710,000 metric tons, up sharply from 510,000 MT in 2021, reflecting a multi-year ramp at state-linked smelter operator Kazakhmys Corporation.

Kazakhstan Copper Exports — Top 5 HS4 Products (2025)

HS Code	Product	Value (USD)	Share
7403.11	Copper, refined, unwrought, cathodes & cathode sections	$15.14B	66.7%
7403.19	Copper, refined, unwrought, n.e.c.	$7.40B	32.6%
7405	Master alloys of copper	$59.82M	0.3%
7403.21	Copper-zinc base alloys (brass), unwrought	$47.74M	0.2%
7408.11	Refined copper wire, cross-section >6mm	$17.25M	0.1%

The HS4 mix tells a single-product story: Kazakhstan is essentially a refined copper cathode and unwrought-copper export economy, with effectively zero downstream presence.

Average implied unit value across HS 7403.11 cathodes works out to roughly $9,330/tonne ($15.14B value over 1.62B kg of weight in the underlying records), which sits within the LME copper price band for 2025.

The dominance of HS 7403.11 + HS 7403.19 means any disruption to Kazakh smelter output would translate almost one-for-one into a hit to the country's HS 74 export line.

Kazakhstan Copper Exports — Top 5 Exporter Companies (2025)

Exporter	Value (USD)	Notes
Kazakhmys Smelting (TOO, primary)	$5.72B	Main legal entity
Kazakhmys Smelting (alt registration)	$3.86B	Secondary registration
Kazakhmys Smelting (third registration)	$3.56B	Third registration
OOO Alfa Trade	$203.64K	Trading intermediary
OOO Inpetro-Trading	$113.05K	Trading intermediary

The three Kazakhmys Smelting registrations together ship more than $13B of copper out of Kazakhstan, making the Kazakhmys group by far the dominant Kazakh copper exporter footprint and one of the world's largest single-corporate copper export operators.

The two trading intermediaries (Alfa Trade, Inpetro-Trading) appear in the top 5 by frequency but their dollar value is negligible compared to Kazakhmys. You can drill into shipment-level records for any of these entities via yTrade's trade activity intelligence.

DR Congo (DRC): Fastest-Growing Top Copper Exporter

DRC ranked #2 in 2025 at $18.82B of HS 74 shipments, with refined copper cathodes (across multiple DRC tariff sub-lines under HS 7403.11) accounting for 94.2% of value. DRC copper production reached roughly 3.3 million tonnes by 2024, making the DRC the world's second-largest copper-mining country and the fastest-growing exporter on the leaderboard.

DR Congo Copper Exports — Top 5 HS4 Products (2025)

HS Code	Product	Value (USD)	Share
7403.1110	Copper, refined, unwrought, cathodes (DRC tariff line)	$15.57B	82.8%
7402.0010	Copper, unrefined; copper anodes for electrolytic refining	$1.55B	8.2%
7403.1120	Copper, refined, unwrought, cathodes (sub-line)	$1.03B	5.5%
7403.1990	Copper, refined, unwrought, n.e.c.	$443.28M	2.4%
7403.1130	Copper, refined, unwrought, cathodes (sub-line)	$74.94M	0.4%

What's striking about the DRC mix is how small the unrefined anode line (HS 7402.0010) is relative to the refined cathode lines — only 8.2% of value, indicating that almost all of DRC's copper now leaves the country as fully refined cathode rather than as anode for further refining elsewhere.

This is a major shift from the early-2010s pattern where DRC anodes were trucked to Zambian and South African refineries. The DRC tariff structure splits cathode exports across at least three sub-lines (7403.1110 / 7403.1120 / 7403.1130), so analysts pulling DRC HS data should aggregate across these to avoid undercounting.

DR Congo Copper Exports — Top 5 Exporter Companies (2025)

Exporter	Value (USD)	Parent / Operator
Tenke Fungurume Mining	$3.25B	CMOC (China)
Sino Congolaise des Mines Sarl	$1.49B	Chinese consortium
Kisanfu Mining	$1.35B	CMOC (China)
Kamoto Copper Company	$1.34B	Glencore
Kamoa Copper SA	$760.23M	Ivanhoe / Zijin

The DRC top 5 exporter list reveals a uniquely China-aligned ownership structure: CMOC operates two of the top five mines (Tenke Fungurume and Kisanfu) for combined shipments of $4.60B; Sino Congolaise des Mines is a Chinese-led consortium; and Kamoa Copper is jointly held by Ivanhoe Mines and Zijin Mining of China.

Only Kamoto Copper Company (Glencore) sits outside the China bloc among the top five. This concentration matters because CMOC and Zijin are the two operators with the most aggressive 2026 expansion programs, which is why DRC's Q1 2026 export ranking jumped — see the Q1 2026 update further below.

Chile: The Structural Cathode Export Leader

Chile ranked #3 globally with $17.18B of HS 74 shipments in 2025 — and its 90.1% concentration in refined copper cathodes (HS 7403.11) is the highest of any top 10 country, reinforcing Chile's role as the world's structural cathode anchor. Chile is responsible for approximately 28% of the world's copper supply in 2025, based on production from porphyry copper deposits in northern Chile.

Chile Copper Exports — Top 5 HS4 Products (2025)

HS Code	Product	Value (USD)	Share
7403.11	Copper, refined, unwrought, cathodes	$15.48B	90.1%
7402.0012	Copper, unrefined; fire-refined copper anodes	$774.60M	4.5%
7402.0019	Copper, unrefined; copper anodes, n.e.c.	$498.71M	2.9%
7402.0013	Copper, unrefined; copper anodes (sub-line)	$359.72M	2.1%
7408.11	Refined copper wire, cross-section >6mm	$27.93M	0.2%

Chile's HS4 mix is the cleanest cathode signature on the leaderboard — 90.1% in HS 7403.11 alone, with the remaining 9.5% in unrefined copper anodes. The trace presence of refined copper wire (HS 7408.11 at $27.93M) highlights how little downstream copper fabrication exists in Chile compared to its mining footprint.

The implied unit value of Chile cathode exports works out to roughly $9,400/tonne, very close to Kazakhstan and consistent with LME 2025 averages. For copper cathode buyers in Asia and Europe, Chile is essentially a single-product origin and any sourcing benchmark should be set against Codelco-led Chilean cathode rather than against multi-product origins like India or Mexico.

Chile Copper Exports — Top 5 Exporter Companies (2025)

Exporter	Value (USD)	Parent / Operator
Codelco Chile	$9.19B	Chilean state
Minera Escondida Limitada	$1.80B	BHP / Rio Tinto
Minera Centinela	$670.37M	Antofagasta plc
Soc Comercial Recmetal Compani	weight-only	Scrap exporter
Cobre Cerrillos S.A	weight-only	Scrap / semi-fab

Codelco's 2025 copper production reached 1.332 million tons, slightly above 1.328 million tons in 2024. Codelco alone ships more copper out of Chile than the next four exporters combined, and its $9.19B 2025 footprint makes it by far the world's largest single-company copper exporter in yTrade data.

Minera Escondida (jointly operated by BHP and Rio Tinto) is the second pillar of Chilean copper exports — Escondida is the largest copper mine in the world by tonnage. Antofagasta-controlled Minera Centinela rounds out the top three. The two scrap-only entries (Recmetal, Cobre Cerrillos) appear in the top 5 by record count but report only weight, not declared value, reflecting how Chilean copper scrap moves through different customs declaration channels than concentrate or cathode.

India: The Downstream Copper Foil & Strip Outlier

India ranked #4 at $16.60B of HS 74 exports in 2025, but its product mix is the inverse of Chile, DRC, and Kazakhstan — India's top 5 HS4 are all downstream semi-fabricated and finished copper goods, not raw cathodes. This makes India the most distinctive exporter on the leaderboard, anchored in copper foil for electronics and PCBs (HS 7410.11) and copper strip for transformers and electrical components (HS 7409.21 / HS 7409.11).

India Copper Exports — Top 5 HS4 Products (2025)

HS Code	Product	Value (USD)	Share
7410.11	Copper foil, not backed, thickness ≤0.15mm	$5.68B	34.1%
7409.21	Copper strip, thickness >0.15mm, brass	$1.90B	11.4%
7409.11	Copper strip, thickness >0.15mm, refined copper	$1.19B	7.2%
7409.29	Copper plates and sheets, thickness >0.15mm	$1.02B	6.1%
7412.20	Copper alloy tube and pipe fittings	$892.69M	5.4%

India's top 5 HS4 reveals a high-value-per-kilogram economy: the top line, copper foil (HS 7410.11), shipped only ~5.26M kg in 2025 but generated $5.68B of value, implying an average unit price north of $1,000/kg — roughly 100x the unit value of raw cathodes. This is because copper foil for PCBs and lithium-ion battery anodes carries a heavy fabrication premium. The same dynamic applies to copper strip and copper plates.

Total raw copper tonnage flowing out of India is dramatically smaller than Chile, DRC, or Kazakhstan, but the per-kilogram value premium pushes India's USD ranking up to #4. Buyers procuring copper foil or copper strip for electrical OEM, EV battery, or PCB applications should treat India as a primary sourcing geography.

India Copper Exports — Top 5 Exporter Companies (2025)

Exporter	Value (USD)	Sub-Sector
Oriental Export Corporation	$854.97M	Copper semi-fab trader
Paloma Turning Co Pvt Ltd	$13.12M	Brass / copper precision parts
Imperial Brass Fittings Pvt Ltd	$10.67M	Brass fittings
Manek Metalcraft	$9.91M	Copper / brass goods
Jaquar & Company Pvt Ltd	$1.81M	Sanitary brass fittings

India's exporter base is highly fragmented — Oriental Export Corporation is the largest single name at under $1B, and the long tail of mid-sized brass fittings, sanitary fittings, and precision-parts suppliers (Paloma, Imperial, Manek, Jaquar) means India's $16.6B copper export economy is split across hundreds of small to mid-sized companies. This fragmentation is the inverse of Chile or Peru, where single state-owned or international-major operators dominate.

For sourcing teams, the implication is that India copper sourcing requires breadth — many supplier conversations rather than a few — and yTrade's customs data is essential for surfacing names that don't appear in industry directories. Buyers tracking Indian downstream copper supply can pull importer-side counterparts via yTrade buyer discovery.

Mexico: The USMCA Copper Wire & Scrap Hub

Mexico ranked #5 at $9.47B in 2025, with a hybrid export profile that combines refined copper wire (HS 7408.1102 — 16.1%), copper waste and scrap (HS 7404.0003 + HS 7404.00 — 23.8% combined), refined copper cathodes (HS 7403.1101 — 8.9%), and refined copper tubes (HS 7411.1001 — 5.6%). This product spread reflects Mexico's USMCA manufacturing integration and its role as both a primary copper producer and a downstream supplier to U.S. wire and tubing markets.

Mexico Copper Exports — Top 5 HS4 Products (2025)

HS Code	Product	Value (USD)	Share
7408.1102	Refined copper wire, >6mm cross-section	$1.75B	16.1%
7404.0003	Copper waste and scrap	$1.60B	14.7%
7404.00	Copper waste and scrap (general)	$990.13M	9.1%
7403.1101	Copper, refined, unwrought, cathodes	$965.08M	8.9%
7411.1001	Copper, tubes and pipes, of refined copper	$602.23M	5.6%

Mexico is the most product-diverse copper exporter on the leaderboard. The combined copper scrap categories (HS 7404.0003 + HS 7404.00) represent $2.59B (24% of Mexico's HS 74 exports), which is significant because it implies a large reverse-flow of post-consumer and post-industrial copper from Mexico northbound into U.S. secondary smelters.

Refined copper wire (HS 7408.1102) is the single largest line at $1.75B, reflecting Mexico's role as a wire harness and electrical wire supplier into the U.S. automotive and appliance OEM ecosystem. The presence of refined cathodes (HS 7403.1101) at $965.08M shows Mexico still has primary refining capacity at Grupo Mexico's facilities. The four-way split (wire / scrap / cathode / tube) makes Mexico's HS 74 line the most balanced among top 10 countries.

Mexico Copper Exports — Top 5 Exporter Companies (2025)

Exporter	Value (USD)	Sub-Sector
Norgren Manufacturing de Mexico SA	$13.01M	IMI plc — fluid control
Eaton Controls S de RL de CV	$12.27M	Eaton Corp — electrical
Truper SA de CV	$4.43M	Tools & hardware
Aquarian de Baja S de RL	$4.01M	OEM manufacturing
Operacion de Calidad S de RL	$777.76K	Industrial services

Mexico's exporter base is unusually long-tail. Even the top exporter (Norgren Manufacturing, an IMI plc subsidiary making fluid control products) ships only $13M of HS 74 — orders of magnitude below the leading exporter in any other top 10 country. The implication is that Mexico's $9.47B in copper exports flows through hundreds of mid-sized USMCA manufacturers, scrap exporters, and contract-electrical assemblers rather than through a small handful of named majors.

Grupo Mexico (the parent of Southern Peru Copper) is a large copper miner in Mexico but its primary export footprint is captured under Peru rather than Mexico in this dataset. For sourcing teams targeting Mexican copper wire or scrap, the practical implication is that yTrade's BoL data is the only realistic way to discover suppliers — they don't appear in conventional industry rankings.

Peru: Southern Copper Anchor Economy

Peru ranked #6 at $8.32B in 2025, with refined copper cathodes (HS 7403.11) at 66.9% of value and refined copper wire (HS 7408.11) at 11.6%. Peru's export profile is one of the most consolidated on the leaderboard: just two companies — Southern Peru Copper Corporation and Tecnofil — represent the bulk of the country's HS 74 exports.

Peru Copper Exports — Top 5 HS4 Products (2025)

HS Code	Product	Value (USD)	Share
7403.1100	Copper, refined, unwrought, cathodes	$5.73B	66.9%
7408.1100	Refined copper wire, cross-section >6mm	$988.75M	11.6%
7409.1900	Copper plates and sheets, >0.15mm	$684.31M	8.0%
7407.1000	Copper bars, rods and profiles, refined	$242.56M	2.8%
7404.0000	Copper waste and scrap	$194.24M	2.3%

Peru is structurally a cathode exporter with a meaningful semi-fabrication tail. The top line (HS 7403.1100 cathodes) at 66.9% mirrors the cathode-heavy pattern of Chile, DRC, and Kazakhstan, but Peru is unusual in that it also runs domestic semi-fab capacity that exports refined copper wire (HS 7408.1100) and copper plates and sheets (HS 7409.1900).

Together these downstream lines represent close to 20% of Peru's HS 74 exports — a much higher downstream share than Chile or DRC. This mix is driven by Tecnofil and Indeco (Nexans group), which run wire and cable production in Peru.

Peru Copper Exports — Top 5 Exporter Companies (2025)

Exporter	Value (USD)	Parent / Operator
Southern Peru Copper Corporation	$5.58B	Grupo México
Tecnofil S.A	$1.57B	Independent semi-fabricator
Indeco S.A	$650.71M	Nexans group — cables
Empresa Metal Mecanica S.A	$14.18M	Industrial mechanical
Falko Peru SAC	$389.34K	Trading

Southern Peru Copper Corporation (a subsidiary of Mexico City-listed Grupo México) is by far the largest exporter, shipping $5.58B of HS 74 in 2025 — making it the second largest single copper exporter company in yTrade data globally, behind only Codelco Chile. Tecnofil and Indeco together ship another ~$2.2B as the country's main downstream copper wire and cable producers. The presence of Indeco, a Nexans group entity, illustrates how French cable major Nexans uses Peruvian copper wire production as a Latin American export base.

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Russia: Cathode + Wire Duopoly Reshaped by Sanctions

Russia ranked #7 at $4.07B in 2025, with refined copper cathodes (76.9%) and refined copper wire >6mm (21.6%) accounting for 98.5% of HS 74 exports combined. Russia's exporter base appears reshaped by post-2022 sanctions — large branded producers like UMMC and Norilsk Nickel are not visible in the top BoL records; instead, generic trading entities dominate.

Russia Copper Exports — Top 5 HS4 Products (2025)

HS Code	Product	Value (USD)	Share
7403.1100	Copper, refined, unwrought, cathodes	$3.13B	76.9%
7408.1100	Refined copper wire, cross-section >6mm	$881.50M	21.6%
7403.2100	Copper-zinc base alloys (brass), unwrought	$28.12M	0.7%
7406.1000	Copper powders, non-lamellar structure	$16.31M	0.4%
7403.1900	Copper, refined, unwrought, n.e.c.	$5.95M	0.1%

Russia's HS4 mix is structurally cathode-and-wire only. The two-line concentration in HS 7403.1100 + HS 7408.1100 means Russia behaves as a near-pure refined copper economy, with no meaningful downstream tube, foil, or sheet exports.

The total Russian footprint at $4.07B is far smaller than the country's actual copper production capacity would imply — Russia's mine output sits well above 1 million tonnes per year — which is consistent with the well-documented post-2022 redirection of Russian copper through non-Western routes that may not all hit yTrade's BoL feeds.

Russia Copper Exports — Top 5 Exporter Companies (2025)

Exporter	Value (USD)	Notes
RUS Co Ltd	$805.16M	Trading entity
OOO Ruskon	$610.34M	Logistics / trading
AO Kristall	$14.31M	Industrial
OOO Bazl	$4.76M	Trading
OOO Prommetplast-DV	$2.59M	Far East trading

The Russian top 5 is striking for what's NOT there: UMMC (Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company) and Norilsk Nickel — Russia's two largest copper producers — do not appear by name.

Instead, generic-named trading entities and logistics companies dominate. This is consistent with the broad pattern of sanctions-era Russian commodity exports, where ownership and counterparty information at the customs declaration level has been increasingly opaque since 2022.

For Western buyers, the practical implication is that any Russian copper sourcing needs to be cross-checked against ownership chains — yTrade data surfaces the named exporter but compliance teams need to trace beneficial ownership separately.

Indonesia: Smelter-Refined Copper Cathode Emerging Player

Indonesia ranked #8 at $3.59B in 2025, with 49.6% of HS 74 value in refined copper cathodes (HS 7403.11) — a direct reflection of new domestic smelter capacity at Freeport's Manyar smelter and Amman Mineral's smelter in Sumbawa. Indonesia faced copper output challenges in 2025 tied to the Grasberg block-cave transition, but smelter-refined copper exports continued to scale.

Indonesia Copper Exports — Top 5 HS4 Products (2025)

HS Code	Product	Value (USD)	Share
7403.1100	Copper, refined, unwrought, cathodes	$1.82B	49.6%
7408.1190	Refined copper wire >6mm (sub-line)	$305.89M	8.4%
7404.0000	Copper waste and scrap	$296.25M	8.1%
7403.2100	Copper-zinc base alloys (brass), unwrought	$287.15M	7.8%
7408.1130	Refined copper wire >6mm (sub-line)	$229.74M	6.3%

Indonesia's HS4 mix is mid-transition: roughly half cathode (HS 7403.11) and half a downstream basket of refined copper wire, scrap, and brass alloys. This is the result of Indonesia's smelter-build mandate, which forced miners (notably Freeport-McMoRan at Grasberg and Amman Mineral at Batu Hijau) to invest in domestic smelter capacity rather than ship copper concentrate offshore.

The Manyar smelter only reached commissioning in 2024, and the data shows Indonesia is now exporting refined cathodes for the first time at material scale. Expect Indonesia's cathode share to rise further as Manyar reaches steady-state production through 2026.

Indonesia Copper Exports — Top 5 Exporter Companies (2025)

Exporter	Value (USD)	Sub-Sector
Karya Sumiden Indonesia	$476.28M	Sumitomo group — wire harness
EBT Plumbing Supply	$7.14M	Plumbing fittings
Diansurya Global	$2.87M	Trading
PT A&One Precision Engineering	$1.32M	Precision parts
PT Blackmagic Design Manufacturing	$283.48K	Electronics OEM

Karya Sumiden Indonesia (a Sumitomo Wiring Systems subsidiary) is the standout exporter at $476.28M, supplying copper wire and wire harnesses to Japanese automotive OEMs across Southeast Asia.

Notably, Freeport Indonesia and Amman Mineral — the two refined cathode producers driving the HS 7403.11 line — do not appear directly in this top 5 exporter list, which suggests their cathode exports flow through distinct legal entities or trading channels not captured in the top BoL company aggregates.

For sourcing teams looking at Indonesian cathode supply, this is a place where deeper shipment-level filtering on HS 7403.11 specifically (rather than HS 74 in aggregate) is needed to surface the right counterparties.

Malaysia: Copper Wire, Tubes & Foil Semi-Fabrication Hub

Malaysia ranked #9 at $3.17B in 2025, exporting almost exclusively semi-fabricated copper products — refined copper wire (HS 7408 — 35.3% combined), copper tubes (HS 7411.10 — 14.3%), copper foil (HS 7410.1190 — 13.7%), and copper rods (HS 7407.1041 — 8.7%). Malaysia has zero raw cathode exports in the top 5, confirming its status as a precision semi-fab hub serving electronics, EMS, and data center cabling demand.

Malaysia Copper Exports — Top 5 HS4 Products (2025)

HS Code	Product	Value (USD)	Share
7408.1120	Refined copper wire >6mm (sub-line)	$687.22M	21.3%
7411.1000	Copper tubes and pipes, refined	$459.58M	14.3%
7408.1990	Refined copper wire ≤6mm (sub-line)	$451.48M	14.0%
7410.1190	Copper foil, not backed (sub-line)	$442.15M	13.7%
7407.1041	Copper bars, rods and profiles, refined	$281.63M	8.7%

Malaysia's HS4 mix is a textbook electronics-supply-chain footprint: refined copper wire of multiple gauges (HS 7408.1120 + HS 7408.1990 = 35.3% combined), copper tubes for HVAC (HS 7411.1000 = 14.3%), copper foil for PCBs and battery applications (HS 7410.1190 = 13.7%), and refined copper rods (HS 7407.1041 = 8.7%).

The lack of any cathode line in the top 5 confirms Malaysia is purely a downstream importer of cathode and exporter of value-added semi-fab. The product diversity also signals Malaysia's role across multiple end-markets: HVAC equipment, EMS contract manufacturing, PCB fabrication, and increasingly data center copper cabling for AI infrastructure deployments.

Malaysia Copper Exports — Top 5 Exporter Companies (2025)

Exporter	Value (USD)	Parent / Sub-Sector
Metrod OFHC Sdn Bhd	$997.91M	Metrod Holdings — OFHC rod
Mettube International Sdn Bhd	$415.54M	Copper tubing
Luvata Malaysia Sdn Bhd	$348.53M	Mitsubishi Materials — wire
Mitsui Copper Foil Malaysia (primary)	$212.87M	Mitsui Mining & Smelting
Mitsui Copper Foil Malaysia (alt registration)	$92.16M	Mitsui Mining & Smelting

The Malaysian top 5 is a who's who of Asian copper semi-fab majors: Metrod Holdings (oxygen-free high-conductivity copper rod), Mettube (copper tubing), Luvata (a Mitsubishi Materials subsidiary specializing in copper wire), and Mitsui Mining & Smelting (copper foil for PCBs and lithium-ion batteries).

Together these four companies (across five legal registrations) account for the majority of Malaysia's HS 74 export footprint — making Malaysia one of the most concentrated semi-fab supplier bases in the world. Mitsui Copper Foil Malaysia appears under two separate legal registrations, similar to the Kazakhmys pattern in Kazakhstan — analysts should aggregate registrations to get the true company footprint.

The Mitsui exposure is particularly important for buyers in EV battery and AI server PCB supply chains, since Mitsui Mining & Smelting is a leading global copper foil supplier.

Vietnam: Chinese-Owned Copper Tubes & Wire Manufacturing Platform

Vietnam ranked #10 at $3.07B in 2025, with refined copper tubes (HS 7411.10) at 41.1% of value alone. Vietnam's copper export economy is dominated by two Chinese-parent manufacturers — Hailiang Vietnam Copper Manufacturing and Jintian Copper Industrial Vietnam — which together represent the majority of the country's HS 74 exports.

Vietnam Copper Exports — Top 5 HS4 Products (2025)

HS Code	Product	Value (USD)	Share
7411.1000	Copper tubes and pipes, refined	$1.26B	41.1%
7408.1990	Refined copper wire ≤6mm (sub-line)	$232.08M	7.6%
7411.1000.10	Copper tubes and pipes, refined (sub-line)	$230.25M	7.5%
7419.8090	Copper articles, n.e.c.	$197.24M	6.4%
7408.2100	Copper wire, brass	$147.70M	4.8%

Vietnam's HS4 mix is uniquely tube-heavy. Refined copper tubes (HS 7411.1000 + HS 7411.1000.10 sub-line = 48.6% combined) dominate the country's copper export footprint, and the rest is split across copper wire (HS 7408.1990 + HS 7408.2100), and a long tail of copper articles (HS 7419.8090).

The tube-led mix is no accident — Hailiang and Jintian, the two dominant operators, are both originally Chinese copper tube specialists who set up Vietnam plants partly to avoid U.S. and EU anti-dumping duties on Chinese copper tubes. Vietnam therefore plays a tariff-arbitrage role on top of being a real manufacturing hub.

Vietnam Copper Exports — Top 5 Exporter Companies (2025)

Exporter	Value (USD)	Parent (China)
Hailiang Vietnam Copper Manufacturing	$991.50M	Hailiang Group
Jintian Copper Industrial Vietnam	$490.87M	Ningbo Jintian Copper
DZC Optoelectronics Technology Vietnam	$87.11M	DZC Optoelectronics
Matsuo Industries Vietnam Inc	$13.87M	Matsuo Industries (JP)
DI Technology Company Limited	$1.21M	—

Hailiang Vietnam Copper Manufacturing ($991.50M) and Jintian Copper Industrial Vietnam ($490.87M) together ship more than $1.48B of copper — both are subsidiaries of major China-listed copper processors (Zhejiang Hailiang and Ningbo Jintian Copper respectively). DZC Optoelectronics is another Chinese-parent operator. Only Matsuo Industries Vietnam (a Japanese-parent precision-parts maker) sits outside the China-affiliated cluster among the top 5.

This concentration tells the story of Vietnam's role as a Chinese-affiliated copper tube and wire export platform — a pattern that has become increasingly strategic in 2025 as U.S.–China copper tariffs and trade-routing scrutiny push Chinese copper fabricators to ship from Vietnam to U.S. and EU markets.

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Q1 2026 Update: Latest Quarter Shifts in the Top Copper Exporting Countries

Q1 2026 reshuffled the copper export leaderboard meaningfully. DR Congo overtook Kazakhstan as the #1 copper exporting country in yTrade-covered data, while copper prices set fresh all-time highs in the same quarter. Copper prices climbed to new record highs of US$6.61 per pound on COMEX and US$13,842.50 on the London Metal Exchange on January 29, 2026, and traders front-loaded U.S. inventory ahead of expected refined-copper tariffs — US COMEX copper inventories hit a record 503,400 metric tons on January 20, 2026.

Q1 2026 Top 10 Copper Exporting Countries — Ranking Shifts

Rank Q1 2026	Country	ISO	Q1 2026 HS 74 Exports (USD)	Rank 2025	Rank Δ
1	DR Congo	COD	$6.49B	2	▲ +1
2	Kazakhstan	KAZ	$6.20B	1	▼ -1
3	Peru	PER	$2.02B	6	▲ +3
4	Chile	CHL	$1.86B	3	▼ -1
5	Mexico	MEX	$1.10B	5	—
6	India	IND	$640.25M	4	▼ -2
7	Vietnam	VNM	$616.72M	10	▲ +3
8	Indonesia	IDN	$485.23M	8	—
9	Malaysia	MYS	$389.45M	9	—
—	Russia	RUS	n/a	7	—

Most notable Q1 2026 movements:

• DRC ▲ to #1: Capacity recovery and CMOC ramp.
• Peru ▲ from #6 to #3: Southern Peru Copper shipments accelerated.
• Vietnam ▲ from #10 to #7: Tube and wire export demand from Chinese-parent operators.
• India ▼ from #4 to #6: Sharp HS 74 contraction; product mix shifted away from foil.
• Russia: No data in yTrade BoL feed for Q1 2026 yet.

A back-of-envelope annualization of Q1 2026 shipments (multiplying by 4) implies a $74B+ run-rate for the full top 10, which would be a steep drop from the 2025 actual of $107B. Two cautions on that math: (1) Q1 has historic seasonality that depresses copper shipment value relative to Q2-Q4; (2) Russia is missing from Q1 2026 entirely so the comparison is not like-for-like. The cleaner read is the rank shifts themselves — DRC overtaking Kazakhstan, Peru jumping three places to #3, and Vietnam jumping three places to #7 are all directional signals worth tracking as Q2 2026 data lands.

What's Driving Q1 2026 Copper Export Shifts

The Q1 2026 shifts visible in yTrade data line up cleanly with three external macro drivers documented in industry coverage:

• Record copper prices fueling tonne-for-tonne USD inflation. According to Investing News Network's Q1 2026 copper review, LME copper traded between US$12,674 and US$13,500 through February and much of March 2026, while COMEX prices ranged from US$5.64 to US$6.09. Higher prices mean each tonne shipped is recorded at a higher USD value — partially explaining why even flat-volume countries (Indonesia, Malaysia) saw modest USD growth.
• DRC capacity ramp at Tenke Fungurume, Kisanfu, and Kamoa-Kakula. Mining Technology projects strong DRC copper output growth in 2026 on the back of Tenke Fungurume expansion and Kamoa-Kakula recovery from earlier flooding disruptions. CMOC's two DRC operations alone shipped $1.42B in Q1 2026 (combining Tenke Fungurume $884.81M + Kisanfu $535.54M).
• Tariff-driven U.S. inventory front-loading. U.S. copper inventories surged as traders built stocks ahead of expected Trump administration refined-copper tariffs, pulling Mexican and Peruvian shipments toward U.S. ports earlier in the quarter.

DR Congo Q1 2026: Top Exporter Shifts and Kamoa Recovery

DR Congo — Top 5 Exporter Companies (Q1 2026)

Exporter	Q1 2026 Value	Parent / Operator
Tenke Fungurume Mining	$884.81M	CMOC (China)
Kisanfu Mining	$535.54M	CMOC (China)
Kamoto Copper Company	$529.93M	Glencore
Kamoa Copper SA	$476.99M	Ivanhoe / Zijin
Brother Mining SASU	$389.87M	Independent

The Q1 2026 DRC exporter list shows two important shifts. First, Kamoa Copper SA shipments jumped sharply versus 2025 — consistent with the post-flooding operational recovery flagged by Mining Technology. Second, Brother Mining SASU appears in the top 5 for the first time at $389.87M, signaling either a new or rapidly scaling operator that wasn't previously captured in the leaderboard. CMOC's two operations (Tenke Fungurume + Kisanfu) shipped $1.42B in a single quarter — annualized, that's a $5.7B run-rate from a single corporate group, which would put CMOC ahead of every Russian or Indonesian producer on a standalone basis.

Peru Q1 2026: Southern Peru Copper Concentration Grows

Peru — Top 5 Exporter Companies (Q1 2026)

Exporter	Q1 2026 Value	Parent / Operator
Southern Peru Copper Corporation	$1.34B	Grupo México
Tecnofil S.A	$243.74M	Independent semi-fabricator
Indeco S.A	$131.33M	Nexans group — cables
Empresa Metal Mecanica S.A	$3.29M	Industrial mechanical
Cobres Aleados S.A.C	$1.02M	Trading

Southern Peru Copper Corporation alone shipped $1.34B in Q1 2026 — a significant single-quarter footprint that puts Southern Peru on track to roughly match its full 2025 output if Q2-Q4 hold pace. Tecnofil's Q1 2026 figure of $243.74M is materially below its proportional 2025 quarterly average, suggesting Tecnofil's wire and rod exports softened in Q1 2026 even as Southern Peru's cathode shipments grew.

Indeco's Q1 figures suggest Nexans' Peruvian cable footprint is also softer relative to its 2025 trajectory. The takeaway: Peru's Q1 2026 jump in country ranking is being driven entirely by Southern Peru Copper, not by the downstream tail.

Vietnam Q1 2026: Hailiang and Jintian Reinforce Their Lead

Vietnam — Top 5 Exporter Companies (Q1 2026)

Exporter	Q1 2026 Value	Parent (China)
Hailiang Vietnam Copper Manufacturing	$221.12M	Hailiang Group
Jintian Copper Industrial Vietnam	$101.14M	Ningbo Jintian Copper
DZC Optoelectronics Vietnam	$20.63M	DZC Optoelectronics
Jintu Precision Metal Vietnam	$13.10M	New entrant
Matsuo Industries Vietnam Inc	$2.38M	Matsuo Industries (JP)

Hailiang and Jintian remain dominant in Vietnam's copper tube and wire export economy, and Hailiang in particular is shipping at a Q1 2026 run-rate that — if sustained — would approach $900M for the full year, very close to its 2025 footprint. A new entrant (Jintu Precision Metal Vietnam) appears in the top 5 at $13.10M, signaling continued Chinese-affiliated investment into Vietnamese copper precision-parts manufacturing.

Vietnam's Q1 2026 jump from #10 to #7 in the country ranking reflects both the Hailiang/Jintian operational ramp and the broader trend of Chinese copper fabricators routing through Vietnam for tariff and trade-routing reasons.

India Q1 2026: Product Mix Flips From Copper Foil to Copper Wire

India's Q1 2026 HS 74 exports contracted sharply to $640.25M, with a notable product-mix flip:

• HS 7408.1190 (refined copper wire ≤6mm) jumped to 41.0% of India's Q1 2026 copper exports.
• HS 7410.11 (copper foil) — India's top 2025 HS4 — fell out of the top 5 entirely.
• HS 7404.0012 (copper waste and scrap) appeared in the top 5 at $35.71M (5.6%), indicating that some India copper export activity is rotating into scrap rather than semi-fabricated products.
• HS 7402.0090 (unrefined copper anodes) appeared at $24.47M (3.8%).

The India Q1 2026 picture is the most volatile of any top 10 country. The disappearance of copper foil from the top 5 is particularly notable because copper foil was India's largest export line by far in 2025.

Possible explanations include: (1) timing of large foil orders concentrating in other quarters, (2) softening PCB and battery foil demand in early 2026, or (3) competitive pressure from Chinese, Korean, or Japanese foil suppliers.

Buyers tracking copper foil supply should specifically watch India Q2 2026 data to see whether the Q1 weakness reverses or hardens into a structural shift.

Want to monitor copper exporter shifts as new shipment data arrives? See the yTrade data coverage page for refresh dates by country, or explore the full yTrade solutions catalog for sourcing, risk, and trade finance use cases.

What's Driving the 2026 Global Copper Export Landscape Beyond Q1

Several industry forecasts converge on the view that copper supply will struggle to keep pace with electrification and AI data center demand in 2026, which means the top exporter rankings are likely to keep shifting:

• J.P. Morgan projects a global refined copper deficit of ~330 kmt in 2026, while Goldman Sachs expects a surplus of 160,000 MT and the International Copper Study Group expects a deficit of 150,000 MT — a wide analyst spread that signals real uncertainty.
• Global copper mine output is expected to grow only 2.1% in 2025 to 23.4 million tonnes, with most growth coming from DRC, Chile, Mongolia, Peru, and Zambia.
• Aging mine assets in top-producing countries combined with rising electrification and AI data center copper intensity means the race for new copper supply is accelerating.

Strategic Patterns Visible Across the 2025 + Q1 2026 Copper Export Data

Pattern 1: Single-Operator Concentration Defines Country Risk

The 2025 + Q1 2026 dataset shows that the top copper exporting countries are functionally controlled by a small number of operators each. Codelco accounts for $9.19B of Chile's $17.18B; Southern Peru Copper accounts for $5.58B of Peru's $8.32B; the three Kazakhmys Smelting registrations together account for ~$13.14B of Kazakhstan's $22.69B; CMOC's Tenke Fungurume + Kisanfu account for $4.60B of DRC's $18.82B; and Hailiang + Jintian together control nearly $1.48B of Vietnam's $3.07B.

The implication for procurement, risk, and credit teams is direct: a single-mine outage at Codelco or Escondida, a single-smelter problem at Kazakhmys, a flooding event at Kamoa-Kakula, or a regulatory action against Hailiang would shift global copper flows within days.

Pattern 2: Cathode vs Downstream Bifurcation Drives Two Sourcing Playbooks

The HS4 data splits the top 10 cleanly into two groups. Cathode-and-anode countries (Chile, DRC, Kazakhstan, Peru, Russia, Indonesia) feed primary smelter and refinery customers and are priced very close to LME and COMEX benchmarks.

Downstream-and-fabricated countries (India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Mexico) carry significant fabrication premiums on top of LME — copper foil from India trades north of $1,000/kg vs cathode at ~$9.50/kg, a ~100x value premium that is purely fabrication-driven. Sourcing teams need separate playbooks: cathode buyers should hedge against LME and benchmark against Codelco/Kazakhmys/CMOC; semi-fab buyers should benchmark against Mitsui/Luvata/Metrod/Hailiang/Tecnofil and watch fabrication-margin trends rather than spot LME alone.

Pattern 3: Chinese-Affiliated Operators Run a Global Offshore Copper Footprint

CMOC at Tenke Fungurume + Kisanfu (DRC), Zijin at Kamoa-Kakula (DRC), Hailiang and Jintian in Vietnam, and Sino Congolaise des Mines all represent Chinese capital deployed outside China to capture copper margin and bypass tariff exposure.

Aggregating these footprints across DRC and Vietnam alone yields $6B+ of annual copper export value controlled by Chinese-parent operators outside mainland China — a meaningful share of the global cathode and tube market that is invisible if you only look at "China copper exports" data. For buyers worried about supply chain China exposure, this offshore footprint matters: a tariff or sanction action against Chinese copper would not directly hit these flows, but could indirectly trigger volume rebalancing.

Pattern 4: USD Value Rankings Conflate Volume and Price

A subtle but important pattern in the 2025 + Q1 2026 data is that USD-denominated copper export rankings are partially driven by copper price moves rather than physical volume changes. With LME copper prices climbing from roughly $9,000-9,500/tonne through most of 2025 to record highs above $13,000/tonne in early 2026, a country shipping the same physical tonnage in Q1 2026 vs 2024 would show a ~40% USD-value gain on price alone.

This means analysts using HS 74 USD value as a proxy for copper market share need to deflate by a copper price index to extract the volume signal — yTrade's data exposes both value and weight per shipment, which makes the deflation possible.

You can pull the full company-level shipment history and importer-side counterparts for any exporter mentioned in this article via yTrade's trade activity intelligence platform.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What HS code is copper and what does HS 74 cover?

A: HS Chapter 74 covers "Copper and articles thereof" under the World Customs Organization Harmonized System. It includes refined copper cathodes (HS 7403.11), unrefined copper anodes (HS 7402), refined copper wire (HS 7408), refined copper bars and rods (HS 7407), copper plates and sheets (HS 7409), copper foil (HS 7410), copper tubes and pipes (HS 7411), copper fittings (HS 7412), and copper waste and scrap (HS 7404). Copper ore is separately classified under HS 2603 and is not part of HS 74.

Q: Which country is the biggest copper exporter in the world in 2025?

A: Within yTrade's customs-direct coverage, Kazakhstan ranked #1 in 2025 at $22.69B of HS 74 shipments, followed by DR Congo at $18.82B and Chile at $17.18B. yTrade's Bill of Lading coverage excludes Zambia, Australia, Poland, and China as export origins, so the global "biggest copper exporter" picture may shift if those origins were layered in via mirror data.

Q: Which country became the #1 copper exporter in Q1 2026?

A: DR Congo overtook Kazakhstan in Q1 2026 to become the #1 copper exporting country in yTrade-covered data, shipping $6.49B vs Kazakhstan's $6.20B. The shift was driven by capacity ramps at CMOC's Tenke Fungurume and Kisanfu, Glencore's Kamoto, and post-flooding recovery at Ivanhoe/Zijin's Kamoa-Kakula complex.

Q: Who is the largest single copper exporter company in the world?

A: Codelco Chile is the single largest copper exporter company in yTrade's 2025 data at $9.19B, followed by the combined Kazakhmys Smelting entities in Kazakhstan at approximately $13.14B aggregated across three legal registrations, and Southern Peru Copper Corporation at $5.58B. CMOC's combined DRC operations (Tenke Fungurume + Kisanfu) shipped $4.60B in 2025 as a single corporate group.

Q: Why is India ranked #4 in copper exports despite limited copper mining?

A: India ranks high in HS 74 export value because it exports significant volumes of high-value downstream copper foil (HS 7410.11 — $5.68B in 2025), copper strip (HS 7409.21 + HS 7409.11 — $3.09B combined), and copper plates and sheets (HS 7409.29 — $1.02B). These downstream products carry far higher per-kilogram USD value than raw cathodes, inflating India's USD-weighted ranking even though India's copper tonnage is far below Chile or DRC.

Q: Why does Vietnam export so much copper without major copper mines?

A: Vietnam exports semi-fabricated copper tubes (HS 7411.10) and copper wire (HS 7408.19) produced by Chinese-parent manufacturers — Hailiang Vietnam Copper Manufacturing and Jintian Copper Industrial Vietnam together dominate. These plants import refined copper cathodes from Chile, DRC, Indonesia, and Australia, then re-export value-added semi-fab products to U.S., EU, and Japanese OEMs. This is part of a broader Chinese offshore copper fabrication strategy.

Q: How did copper price records affect Q1 2026 export values?

A: Copper prices set all-time highs in January 2026 at US$6.61/lb on COMEX and US$13,842.50/t on LME, per Investing News Network's Q1 2026 copper review. Higher prices inflated declared USD values at customs even where physical tonnage was flat — meaning some Q1 2026 country gains reflect price appreciation rather than volume growth. yTrade's data lets users separate value vs weight to identify which countries grew on volume vs price.

Q: Are there expected copper supply deficits in 2026?

A: Forecasters disagree on the 2026 balance — Goldman Sachs expects a surplus of 160,000 MT, the International Copper Study Group expects a deficit of 150,000 MT, and J.P. Morgan projects a deficit of approximately 330,000 MT. The wide spread reflects uncertainty around DRC ramp pace, Chilean grade decline, U.S. tariff effects, and electrification demand.

Q: How fresh is yTrade customs data and how often is it updated?

A: yTrade's HS 74 BoL records are sourced directly from national customs authorities and are typically updated within weeks of shipment clearance. Refresh cadence varies by country — see the yTrade data coverage page for the latest available date range for each origin country.

Q: Can I see individual shipments behind these copper export numbers?

A: Yes. Every figure in this article aggregates shipment-level Bill of Lading records that include exporter company name, importer company name, HS code, shipment date, weight, declared value, port of loading, port of discharge, and incoterms where available. These are queryable through yTrade's trade activity intelligence platform.

Q: Why are Zambia, Australia, Poland, and China not in this ranking?

A: These four countries are major global copper exporters in mirror trade statistics but are not currently in yTrade's Bill of Lading origin coverage. yTrade's customs-direct coverage focuses on countries where direct national customs feeds are accessible. For countries outside the BoL footprint, mirror import-side data from buyer countries can be used as a workaround — see the yTrade data sources page for the full coverage matrix.