China’s copper wire market closed December 2025 with strong upward momentum. This came as a result of growing demand from the battery industry. However, because of tariffs that are being imposed on imported graphite, it is now becoming an industry that is less reliant on imports.
The market for copper wire in China experienced a considerable escalation in prices by 4% in December 2025, because of the steadily widened gap between supply and demand. The production rate continued to slow as the operating rate for copper wire and cable manufacturers dropped below 70%, declining by 3.4% from the previous month as the principal reason for lower production being the steady fluctuation in the price of copper. The raw material inventory for wire and cable companies reached 39,584mt in December.
As for supply, the conditions remained tight. The processing charge for copper concentrates moved further into negative territory, indicating a very tight supply of materials. The fact that smelters were essentially paying mining companies to supply materials to process, which is a very rare and alarming trend, can be attributed to a lack of investment and lower ore grades over the years. Large producers, such as Chile and Peru, remained beset by policy risks that deterred investment from overseas, making it increasingly tough for supplies of copper to increase, and this again provides strong fundamental support to higher copper wire prices.
Copper wire demand, on the other hand, trended higher. The growth of new energy vehicles (NEV) in China contributed greatly to copper wire demand. The December retail sales of new energy vehicles reached an estimate of 1.387 million units, a rise of 7% year-over-year and 5% month-over-month. For the whole year 2025, retail sales of new energy vehicles amounted to 12.859 million units, up 18%.
The copper wires demand engine that had strong influence on copper wires industry includes increasing build-out of data computing power hubs and power grids in China. According to official reports, from January to October 2025, a total of 482.4 billion yuan of investment has been made on power grid development, a 7.2% increase from a year ago. State Grid Corp of China broke 650 billion yuan of investment for the first time, and 175 billion yuan of investment was made by China Southern Power Grid Company, a new record high of investment on power grid projects as a whole. Annual investment growth of power grid projects above 5% is expected in the 15th Five Year Plan period.
On aggregate, the record-high copper wire prices for December are attributed to the following impacts of tight supply, strong demand, and market dynamics. The growth in supplies is low due to limited investments and streamlining, but the growth in demands is continuing because of the energy transition and AI compute power requirements. Moving ahead, the copper wire prices would remain volatile at higher levels. The market would take keen notice of the changes in the supply chains, availability of concentrates, and the revival of China's real estate market, which might affect the downstream use of copper wires in early 2026.
