The copper crisis: Overcapacity in China and underinvestment in America

In his second term, President Donald Trump’s reembrace of an old American axiom, “industrial capacity equals strategic power,” has secured over $5 trillion in reshored investment commitments from over 100 major companies. Some of it is new tech: Apple is reshoring iPhone supply chains and Silicon Valley is building new data centers all around the country. Some of it is “old”: the Big Three automakers are all increasing domestic production. 

There is a consistent thread running through those somewhat disparate industries: copper. As the essential metal for electrification — it’s in power grids, semiconductors, telecommunications equipment, advanced weapons systems, and next-generation vehicles — copper powers both our industrial present and our industrial future. A nation that cannot independently produce, refine, and process enough copper is a nation that risks ceding industrial capacity, technology dominance, and national destiny.

Enter China. Through the 21st century, Beijing has pursued an aggressive strategy backed by state-directed investments and unfair subsidies