Copper ore sold to Taiwan hit US$ 6.06 per kg in April, 12.7% above December 2025, but August topped that record with US$ 6.08 per kg in the data.
Brazilian copper ore sold to Taiwan reached US$ 6.06 per kg in April 2026, at the time the highest price per kilo ever recorded on that route. The previous record, US$ 5.38 per kg, dated from December 2025, and the gap was +12.7%. The data through August show that April's record has since been overtaken: the August price reached US$ 6.08 per kg. The figures come from ComexStat, the database of MDIC, Brazil's trade ministry. They measure the average price of the month's shipments, on a FOB basis (price before freight and insurance), not the total sold. This is a price milestone, not a volume one, and the difference matters to anyone reading the number.
December's peak stood for four months. April cleared it with room to spare: US$ 6.06 against US$ 5.38 per kg. A 12.7% jump over an already high record is not a tweak, it is a step. It helps to say what the price is: FOB value divided by the weight shipped. It blends the copper grade of the concentrate, the contract terms and the exchange rate at sale. April shipped 12.1 thousand tonnes, enough volume for the average price to carry weight. The shipments of February and March were tiny, at 149 and 887 tonnes, priced at US$ 2.27 and US$ 2.77 per kg.
In May the price fell to US$ 3.60 per kg, with 10.7 thousand tonnes, well below April's peak. In June it rose to US$ 4.81 per kg, with 22.0 thousand tonnes, the largest volume in the series analyzed. In July it stood at US$ 3.62 per kg, but with only 259 tonnes, too little to indicate a trend. In August the price went to US$ 6.08 per kg, with 15.2 thousand tonnes. That is 0.3% above April and 13.0% above the December 2025 record. The margin over April is small, but it is a new record, measured on relevant volume. So the all-time-high title moved from April to August, and a level above US$ 6 per kg has now shown up twice in the series.
Copper ore is traded for the metal it carries. The international copper price is the main reference, and concentrate usually follows it with a lag of a few weeks. As a hypothesis, the record may reflect a firmer metal market, a better-grade cargo, or both at once. The data from MDIC does not separate these hypotheses. Currency is the second factor. Sales are in dollars, so a weaker real raises the revenue in reais of anyone exporting, even with the dollar price flat. As we showed in Brazilian crude to Portugal hits all-time high price, a record price per kilo tends to mix product, currency and contract. That is why an exporter selling in dollars should read the price and the exchange rate together, never one without the other.
A record by a 0.3% margin does not prove the level has shifted. The test is whether the price per kilo holds above US$ 6 per kg in more than one shipment, and with relevant volume. Three things help tell the hypotheses apart: the international copper price, the volume shipped each month and the exchange rate. None of them appears in MDIC figures used here. Each month's figure arrives weeks late, so today's price may already be different.
December 2025: US$ 5.38 per kg. April 2026: US$ 6.06. August 2026: US$ 6.08. The record changed month, but the reading stays the same: a single shipment's price only counts with the volume beside it.
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