Copper price per pound and per metric ton explained

Copper futures use different contract quantities

A standard copper futures contract, product code HG, represents 25,000 pounds. The contract specification describes a per-pound quotation; data displays may express that price in dollars or cents. Confirm the field’s scale instead of guessing from its magnitude.

Another copper futures contract is quoted in US dollars per metric tonne and uses a 25-tonne lot. Its physical settlement specification concerns approved copper cathodes. A quote for fabricated wire or scrap describes a different product even though each contains copper.

Worked example: dollars per pound to dollars per tonne

One international pound is exactly 0.45359237 kilograms. A metric tonne is 1,000 kilograms, so it contains approximately 2,204.622622 pounds.

For an illustrative USD 4.00-per-pound quote, multiply by the pounds in one tonne to get about USD 8,818.49 per tonne. If the source instead provides 400 cents per pound, first divide by 100 to obtain USD 4.00 per pound.

Select pounds and metric tonnes in the converter to check a mass quantity. For a price, apply the denominator formula shown above; the calculator does not fetch copper prices or calculate an exchange spread.

1 tonne = 1,000 ÷ 0.45359237 ≈ 2,204.622622 lb
4.00 USD/lb × 2,204.622622 lb/t ≈ 8,818.49 USD/t

Equal unit prices do not imply equal contract values

At that illustrative USD 4.00 quote, a standard 25,000-pound HG contract has a notional value of USD 100,000. At the converted USD 8,818.49-per-tonne price, a 25-tonne lot would have approximately USD 220,462.26 of notional value, calculated before display rounding.

The second figure is a unit-and-quantity illustration, not an observed market quote. These different notionals follow from the different lot sizes. Neither number states the margin required to hold a position.

What to align before calculating a premium

A cash observation and a later delivery price are different observations. The same applies to two futures contract months. Converting pounds to tonnes does not align their delivery periods.

• Product: cathode, wire, concentrate or scrap, with the applicable grade.
• Market and location: exchange contract or physical delivery quote.
• Period: the precise contract month or prompt date.
• Quotation: dollars or cents, per pound or per metric tonne.
• Observation: timestamp and settlement, last trade, bid or ask.

Request the copper reference price

Narwhal returns the XCU copper reference price in USD per pound. It is derived from futures markets, not a physical spot cargo price. Copper supports the latest price only; price history is not available yet. Read timestamp and stale with the price. The response below is illustrative.

GET /v1/commodities/spot/XCU/USD

{
  "symbol": "XCU-USD",
  "price": "4.0000",
  "currency": "USD",
  "unit": "pound",
  "timestamp": "2026-10-08T18:41:00Z",
  "stale": false
}

Read prediction market odds for the daily close

Narwhal shows what prediction markets expect for the copper price at a daily close, with a middle estimate and an 80% range. The odds are delayed by 15 minutes. These are market odds for a closing price, not a price feed.