By Tom Daly
SANTIAGO, April 14 (Reuters) - The massive copper stockpile on the U.S. Comex exchange should be drawn down in the coming months as local demand kicks in, the CEO of German copper producer Aurubis said on Tuesday.
There are 532,000 metric tons of copper in Comex warehouses - almost a quarter of annual U.S. consumption - after traders moved metal to the United States last year ahead of possible tariffs.
Inventories have not fallen significantly after peaking at almost 546,000 tons in February,
with the arbitrage to ship copper to Comex opening again last week.
"I think it's a security of supply issue," Aurubis CEO Toralf Haag said. "But in my opinion, the stocks will decrease over the next months through strong local demand."
Haag, who was in the U.S. recently, declined to estimate where stocks would stand at the end of 2026.
In an interview on the sidelines of the World Copper Conference in Santiago, Haag said Aurubis is set to finish the 90,000 tons per year second phase of its recycling plant in Richmond, Georgia, by the end of September.
A decision on whether to expand that facility, build another recycling plant elsewhere in the U.S. or build a primary copper smelter, previously earmarked for the (northern hemisphere) summer, will now most likely come by the end of 2026, Haag said.
Aurubis has felt a "certain downturn" from customers because of the Iran war and is seeing less demand from Germany's struggling automotive sector, but other industries, such as power and construction, are compensating, Haag said.
Data centres are a "big additional demand driver for copper", he added, estimating that 1,000 new data centres planned globally will each need 20,000-30,000 tons of copper.
Aurubis is also seeing more demand for sulphuric acid as the conflict creates shortages. The company produces 2 million tons per year of the chemical at its smelting base in Hamburg and in Bulgaria.
"We are getting enquiries from all around the world and also from players we haven't done business with before," Haag said, adding that sales on long-term contracts meant Aurubis was only partially benefiting from higher acid prices and had limited spot availability.
(Reporting by Tom DalyEditing by David Goodman)
