C12200 DHP Copper Prices October 26, 2026

C12200 is where the copper decline actually shows up. At 99.9% copper there is no alloy leg to dilute it, so the 0.82% LME drop this week passed straight through: C12200 melt fell $0.05/lb to $6.62/lb, the first weekly decline since late September. That is the good news, and it is real. The number that should change your specification decisions is a different one. The C12200 premium over C11000 has compressed from $0.14/lb to $0.05/lb in four weeks - the narrowest gap in ten weeks - because the US cathode premium firmed to $0.092/lb while C12200's phosphorus-deoxidation charge stayed flat at $0.07/lb. Anyone specifying C11000 purely to save money on a welded or brazed assembly just lost $0.09/lb of that reason. Meanwhile the Q4 HVAC retrofit and medical-gas build has pulled ASTM B280 ACR tube lead times to 5–8 weeks from 4–6 weeks in late September, which makes this a two-speed market: melt-driven forms fell, order-book-driven forms rose.

Conversion reference: 1 lb = 0.4536 kg. To convert USD/lb to USD/kg, multiply by 2.205. C12200 melt reference is computed as LME Cu × 0.999 + phosphorus-deoxidation charge of $0.07/lb; C11000 melt reference as LME Cu × 0.999 + US cathode premium. Both use mid-range chemistry per UNS C12200 (Cu 99.90 min, P 0.015–0.040%).

Sources: published LME 3-month copper closes, COMEX front-month prints, cathode-premium assessments, China-domestic mill-printed quotes for export channels (week ending Oct 23, 2026). Trading reference: October 26, 2026.

Pure copper and brass behave differently on the same copper tick, and this week made the difference obvious. A brass mill quotes against billet cast on last month's melt, so the copper drop has not reached C68700 yet. C12200 carries no such lag - at 99.9% Cu, the melt value simply is the copper price plus a fixed $0.07/lb deoxidation charge, and every melt-driven form on the table above moved down $0.01 to $0.04/lb this week. Plate, sheet, strip, bus bar and bar all came off. If your BOM is flat-rolled C12200, this is the first genuinely cheaper week since September.

The other half of the line did not come off. ASTM B280 ACR tube rose $0.06/lb, capillary tube (B743) rose $0.07/lb and medical-gas tube (B819) rose $0.08/lb - against a falling melt. The reason is capacity, not metal. The Q4 HVAC retrofit and healthcare-facility build pulls thin-wall, dehydrated-and-sealed tube, and that product runs on the same drawing and cleaning lines that serve everything else. A medical-gas order also carries cleaning, capping and documentation steps that a standard water-tube order does not, so it absorbs disproportionate line hours per tonne. Seamless tube in general is now being scheduled behind ACR and medical-gas work, which is why B75 moved down only $0.02/lb instead of the $0.04/lb the melt would imply.

For a buyer, the decision is form-specific rather than alloy-specific. A Q4 plumbing package of 4 tonnes of type-L water tube saves about $90 USD at this week's price versus last week - immaterial. The same 4 tonnes specified as ACR or medical-gas tube costs roughly $530 to $700 USD more than it did a week ago, and the difference grows if the order slips into November. Lock the thin-wall, sealed and cleaned forms now; there is no reason to hurry the flat-rolled forms, because those are the ones still falling.

C12200 and C11000 are 99.9% the same metal, and for most of the year that last 0.1% costs real money. It has stopped costing real money.

The premium is set by two different mechanisms. C11000 (ETP) quotes carry the US cathode premium as a live line item - it firmed again this week to $0.092/lb, above the $0.090 level refiners were testing in October. C12200 quotes instead carry a fixed phosphorus-deoxidation charge that has held at $0.07/lb for four weeks and does not move with the cathode market. Every cent the cathode premium adds makes C11000 more expensive and leaves C12200 where it is, and that is exactly what happened: the gap went $0.14 → $0.13 → $0.11 → $0.09 → $0.05 across five weeks.

The engineering reason to pick C12200 has not changed, and now it costs almost nothing. C11000 is oxygen-bearing; welding or brazing it in a reducing atmosphere risks hydrogen embrittlement and porosity. C12200 is phosphorus-deoxidized and is the correct grade for any brazed or welded assembly - HVAC coil, manifold, heat-exchanger header, plumbing fitting. At a $0.05/lb gap, choosing C11000 for a brazed part to save money is now saving roughly $0.05/lb while taking on a failure mode. That trade was defensible at $0.14/lb. It is not defensible this week.

The one place C11000 still wins is conductivity, and the gap is not close. C12200 typically lands around 85–90% IACS against 100%+ for C11000. If your part is a bus bar, a conductor or anything with a conductivity requirement on the drawing, the premium compression is irrelevant - stay on C11000 or move to C10100/C10200. The compression only changes the decision on welded, brazed and plumbing forms.

Cost lines as a copper tube mill or finishing house actually bills them, expressed as USD per lb of finished C12200 product, with USD per kg in parentheses. Prices include the fabrication premium applicable to the week ending October 23, 2026. Cleaned, capped and certified forms (ACR, capillary, medical gas) carry the heaviest fabrication premium; flat-rolled forms the lightest.

USD/lb prices reflect October 23 spot assessments with prevailing LME Cu $6.56/lb and US cathode premium $0.092/lb. Fabrication premium varies by form, temper and lead time; ranges shown are typical for the most-traded product / temper combinations.

C12200 (DHP, phosphorus-deoxidized) is the default grade for anything that gets brazed, welded, or carries water. Six nearby grades trade at premium or discount against it. Quick reference for buyers deciding whether to upgrade, substitute or hold specification.

Premiums reflect October 23 spot assessments. C12200 baseline at $9.20–11.40/lb seamless tube equivalent. Discounts and premiums vary by form and temper; ranges shown are typical for tube / plate equivalents.

Six product-line moves the data is pointing to, in priority order.

C12200 medical-gas tube (ASTM B819) and capillary tube (B743). +$0.08/lb and +$0.07/lb against a falling melt, and thin-wall drawing capacity is the constraint. Book the mill slot this week and get written confirmation of the internal cleanliness limit, capping method and lead time. These two lines are the only C12200 forms where waiting has a clear cost.

C12200 ACR tube (ASTM B280). Lead time has moved to 5–8 weeks on the Q4 HVAC retrofit build. Lock Q4 and early-Q1 volume now, ordered as sealed coil or straight lengths with the end-cap method stated. If the schedule cannot take 5–8 weeks, ask for a B447 welded-tube requote - it is running $1.40–1.70/lb less and ships faster.

Any brazed or welded assembly currently specified in C11000. The premium has collapsed to $0.05/lb. Re-quote it in C12200 this week - this is the cheapest the DHP upgrade has been in ten weeks, and it removes the hydrogen-embrittlement exposure that comes with brazing oxygen-bearing copper. Leave the electrical parts on C11000.

C12200 plate, sheet and strip (ASTM B152). The only lines that genuinely got cheaper, down $0.03–0.04/lb with full melt pass-through. No urgency - but this is the week to re-quote and bank the saving, and to lock any Q1 2027 flat-rolled requirement if you want it priced off a sub-$14,500/t copper print.

C12200 bus bar and bar (ASTM B187). Weakest demand in the family at −$0.02/lb. Lowest-priority action; re-quote is optional. Note that bus bar is the one form where the conductivity rule bites - stay on C11000 or C10200 unless the drawing allows 85% IACS.

C12200 water tube (ASTM B88, type L / M). Down $0.01/lb with stable lead times and steady plumbing demand. Hold and re-quote in November; there is no capacity constraint on this line and the cathode-premium move means the next print may not be lower.

Two signals to watch over the next two weeks.

If the US cathode premium pushes above $0.10/lb, the C12200-over-C11000 gap closes completely and can invert - C12200 would quote at or below C11000 on the same form. Under that scenario the specification argument in this article becomes one-directional: every brazed or welded C11000 part should move to C12200 immediately, and the electrical forms should quote C11000 against a cathode premium that is no longer worth absorbing.

If LME copper recovers above $14,800/tonne, this week's pass-through reverses and the flat-rolled lines give back the $0.03–0.04/lb they just gave up. The window on plate, sheet and strip closes, and thin-wall tube adds the melt move on top of the order-book premium already in place. Treat any quote with a validity shorter than 14 days as expired on receipt.

Mill-direct product lines carried in our Q4 catalogue for phosphorus-deoxidized copper (UNS C12200), with related grades C11000, C10200, C12000 and C14200 supplied against on request. Mill test certificates per EN 10204 3.1 are standard; internal cleanliness certificates for ACR and medical-gas tube, and conductivity test reports per ASTM E1004, available on request.

Request a C12200 Quote