Copper shipments into the United States are expected to accelerate in the coming weeks in a final scramble to get metal across the border before U.S. President Donald Trump's higher than expected 50% tariff on imported copper takes effect.

President Trump's threatened 50% copper tariffs have boosted prices for the metal in the U.S. far ahead of anywhere else, lifting the premium to roughly one quarter. Copper futures mainly trad

The U.S. copper price premium over the global benchmark soared 138% on Tuesday to a record high after U.S. officials announced potential 50% import tariffs on the metal. Copper has been flooding into the U.

President Trump is amping up trade threats, again unveiling a new batch of letters to country leaders outlining tariffs on goods imported from their countries beginning in August and a warning to BRICS nations.

President Trump's move to impose a 50% tariff on U.S. copper imports targets a vital metal that is widely used in many products and industries. That could lead to higher prices for everything from appliances and electronics to cars and home repairs,

Carlos Gutierrez, former Commerce Secretary, told CNBC’s Emily Tan on “The China Connection” that the U.S. reliance on copper imports is a “vulnerability, but [the U.S. doesn’t] have the capacity right now to offset imports.

Trump said on Tuesday that he would impose a 50% tariff on copper. Though the remarks were light on specifics, his comments sent the metal to all-time highs.

“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.