Indian Copper’s Triple Threat

Good Morning. The shine for India’s copper industry seems to be dimming. US president Donald Trump’s tariff announcements wiped out a key US price edge. While that hasn’t directly affected India, other factors at play paint a grim picture for India's copper industry — China is squeezing refining margins, and Indonesia is mulling an export ban. Add to it domestic bottlenecks. Can India’s copper industry survive this?

In other news, India’s retail inflation hits eight-year low. Meanwhile, in this week’s Build On Blockchain, how blockchain technology can help even smaller businesses.

DECODE THE NEWS

India’s Copper Industry Faces Triple Whammy Thanks To Trump, China

What? 

Billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of Hindalco Industries (Hindalco), India’s largest copper company, in a recent address, noted that merchandise trade, which has long been the engine of global growth, now faces an uncertain future.

Perhaps uncertain enough to warrant a strong vigil from Birla’s team at Hindalco, and that of his rivals in the domestic copper industry — Adani Enterprises.

While the direct hit from US president Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs is limited — India exports $360 million worth of semi-finished copper to the US annually — the industry faces a triple whammy thanks to a mix of global factors.

US tariff volatility is weighing in on global prices, China pushing for lower treatment and refining charges (TCRCs), and Indonesia’s looming ban on copper concentrate exports could put India’s copper industry at risk.

Why?

The United States’ surprise exclusion of certain copper segments from the anticipated tariffs on copper imports upended market expectations. On July 30, Trump imposed a 50% tariff on the import of semi-finished copper products, excluding refined copper, along with ores, concentrates, anodes, and scrap — a move that effectively crashed the US copper market.

How copper prices move on the London Metal Exchange (LME) decides what kind of revenue Indian copper companies can expect.

After rallying by 30% in July 2025, US Comex copper futures corrected sharply by 20% after the tariff announcement. The 50% US tariff on semi-finished copper products and not raw materials erased the previous COMEX premium over LME prices, explained executives at BigMint, a commodity market intelligence firm

What Next?

At home, domestic policy bottlenecks are adding to this.

“As global supply chains become increasingly asymmetric, India must fast-track strategies like development of domestic resources, diversified sourcing, developing domestic scrap ecosystem and policy-led resilience to reduce dependence and protect long term sectoral profitability,” said Satnam Singh, senior practice leader & director at Crisil Intelligence.

What else can India do to ease the pressure on the domestic copper industry? 

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BUILD ON BLOCKCHAIN

Blockchain Isn’t For Goliaths Alone, Davids Can Use It As Well

What?

When people hear about blockchain, most of them think it’s only for tech companies or conglomerates handling complex digital functions or transactions.

That’s not true. This technology has real, practical value for businesses, including small ones looking to stand out and find buyers in competitive markets, global as well as domestic.

Take, for example, a small Ahmedabad-based textile manufacturer with international ambitions.

Selling the product abroad sounds like a dream, but the reality is complex. International payments take days, and there are middlemen ready to eat into margins.

Also, proving the quality of your product to someone sitting in another part of the world isn’t easy.

This is where blockchain could come to the rescue.

How?

The technology provides a secure digital record of every activity which everyone involved in a transaction can see and verify.

That means the small business owner can record every step of the production process on the blockchain — materials used, shipping status, delivery dates, etc.

Because all the details are disclosed in a transparent way, buyers sitting hundreds of miles away can see exactly what they will get and when.

An even more effective way the blockchain system could help a small business is by reducing the need for middlemen, such as brokers, agents, and banks, who take their cuts at every step.

How can that work?

This series is brought to you in partnership with Algorand. 

CORE NUMBER

Rs 7,100 crore

That’s how much India’s top 300 family businesses earned every single day last year, according to the 2025 Barclays Private Clients Hurun India report.

📌 The details:

• The list grew by 100 new families this year, now totalling 300 with a combined valuation of Rs 134 lakh crore — bigger than the GDPs of Turkey and Finland combined.

• Ambani family leads at Rs 28.2 lakh crore, followed by Kumar Mangalam Birla at Rs 6.5 lakh crore and Jindal family at Rs 5.7 lakh crore.

• These businesses employ over 2 million people and paid Rs 1.8 lakh crore in taxes, accounting for 15% of India’s corporate tax collections.

• The top 10 families alone control nearly half the total list value.

🧾 Why it matters:

India’s family businesses influence everything from job creation to economic growth. “ Their economic footprint is enormous: together they generated roughly Rs 7,100 crore of value every single day last year, and nearly three-quarters of these businesses grew in value year-on-year, underscoring their vitality in India’s growth story,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, founder and chief researcher at Hurun India.

FROM THE PERIPHERY

India Inflation Eases: India’s retail inflation plunged to an eight-year low in July, slipping below 2% for the first time since 2017 as food prices tumbled. Inflation stood at 1.55%, down from 2.10% in June and below the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) 2–6% target range, according to a report by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation.

By the Numbers: Prices of vegetables fell 20.69% and pulses 13.76% year-on-year, a trend that is beginning to hurt farmers. While the RBI recently cut its annual inflation forecast to 3.1%, economists say the impact on policy may be muted.

What’s Next? However, US tariffs on Indian exports could slow growth, leaving room for rate cuts if inflation stays weak. Core inflation also eased to around 4%.

Exports Face Tariff Heat: From August 27, sectors like diamond polishing, shrimp, home textiles and carpets will be impacted with a 50% tariff imposed by the US, according to a CRISIL report. The report further stated that diamonds, which earn a quarter of their revenue from the US, could see a sharp drop amid weak demand and rising lab-grown competition. Shrimp exporters, already paying anti-dumping duties, may lose price competitiveness to Ecuador.

Impact: Home textiles and carpets, with over half their exports headed to the US, risk steep revenue declines as discretionary buyers resist higher prices. Ready-made garments, agrochemicals, chemicals, and capital goods will also be hit, though to varying degrees.

Next Steps? While strong balance sheets, alternative markets, and possible government aid may soften the hit, the focus now is on whether a US-India trade deal can stem the impact.

Chemists Want Ban on Quick Commerce Drug Sales. The All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) – an industry body that represents over 12 lakh chemists across the nation – wrote a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah seeking a ban on quick-commerce delivery of prescription medicines by platforms like Zepto and Blinkit. 

Flashpoint: They wrote that these platforms, as well as certain e-pharmacies, sell Schedule H, H1, and X drugs on ghost prescriptions, meaning forged or recycled prescriptions. They warned that easy online access to anti-anxiety drugs like alprazolam and pregabalin could trigger misuse and addiction among youth. 

Critical Moment: Previously, the AIOCD has raised similar concerns, writing to the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), but so far, it hasn’t resulted in any concrete steps to curbing quick commerce drug sales. 

IndiGo Tops On-Time List: IndiGo emerged as Asia’s most punctual airline in July, clocking an on-time performance of 87.28% across 62,000 flights, ahead of Thai AirAsia and Philippine Airlines, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium’s ‘Monthly On-Time Performance Report’. Its on-departure time stood at 88.60%, 3.46% higher than Thai AirAsia.

By The Numbers: In the global large airport category, Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport and Chennai International Airport topped rankings with on-time rates of around 92% and 87%, serving 105 and 66 routes, respectively. Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Delhi airports also featured in the top 20.

Fast Facts: Ahmedabad Airport ranked 5th among medium airports worldwide, while Srinagar’s Sheikh Ul Alam International Airport secured the 11th spot in the small airport category.

THE MEDIA ROOM

OTT Killing The Business Of Cinema? That’s What Actor Aamir Khan Thinks

The movie business in India, and actually the world over, has seen a difficult time post-pandemic. Consumers just don’t want to step into theatres unless the films are blockbuster hits or big-ticket films.

The lack of good content and OTT platforms has been among the reasons why this is happening. But according to actor Aamir Khan, whose production company Aamir Khan Productions’ latest Sitaare Zameen Par did not have an OTT tie-up, OTT may be killing the business.

“In the larger context, or you know, looking at it in the long term, I feel that that (OTT) is one of the things that's killing our business. I'm talking about cinema, the business of cinema,” Khan told Vanita Kohli-Khandekar in the latest episode of The Media Room.

Citing the example of Sitaare Zameen Par, Khan said that if the audiences know that a film is going to end on a streaming service, they are less likely to watch the film.

“If the film was not coming on an OTT platform, and audiences realise that it's only in theatres, and nowhere else, then, which is what they were told for Sitaare Zameen Par, this is coming on theatres right now, and there's no other indication of where we're coming next,” Khan said.

Khan also spoke about the changing landscape of film distribution, why he’s championing the pay-per-view model, and how digital shifts like UPI and internet penetration are reshaping the industry.

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PODCAST

On Episode 653 of The Core Report, financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj talks to Gaurang Shah, Senior Vice President at Geojit Financial Services. We also feature an excerpt from our Interview with Abhijit Pegu, co-founder of LW3, as part of our Build On Blockchain Series.

• Markets struggle to make up their mind

• Inflation is now 1.55% and food inflation is now deflation

• Decoding 25% tariff impact on companies earnings

• How blockchain helps track down batteries for EVs

• Bangalore, Chennai lead global airport rankings in on time departures for July

👥 THE TEAM

✍️ Zinal Dedhia, Kudrat Wadhwa | ✂️ Rohini Chatterji | 🎧 Joshua Thomas