Copper prices reached record highs on Monday due to a rally driven by short covering and speculative bets. Copper, primarily used in power, construction, and increasingly in green energy applications like electric vehicles and AI data centers, saw global consumption rise from 10 million metric tons in the late 1980s to 26.5 million tons in 2023. Asia, particularly China, is the largest consumer, with China alone using 14.7 million tons as of 2022.