Wowee The Insane Rise Of Copper Price

I wonder what China is going to do? Low prices is their only strong point. They are a huge metals buyer. Did I see $279.00 for 250' of 14AWG romex at Home Depot? Genuinedealz seems to be out of cable.

I read an article that said the price of a new railroad locomotive has jumped $300,000 dollars. Some huge cables cost $160 ft.

I have a feeling the cost of cabling an inverter will surpass the cost of the inverter itself.

I just returned from the workshop bedroom after petting boxes of wire and cable and large trays of terminals.

There is no lumber shortage, the lumber is stacked and packed in the yards, the banks want high prices to make higher mortgages.
Everything will go up.
25% inflation will see to that.
Printing money like crazy.
It is not stimulus, it is welfare that the govt is paying out to everyone, job or not.
Don't hold Dollars. Buy stuff now.
Friends I know who fled eastern Europ nations say when they hit hyper inflation that they would get paid, go spend it that day, buying anything, clothing not their size, pots and pans, anything, because the next day that money would not buy gum.

The copper mills slowed down for various reasons. If I remember right, one was taken out with those high winds a while back. Another changed ownership and just was not taking orders for some reason. I use copper in my business, its not $10 a pound, but I'm seeing processed and ready to ship small batch C110 prices close to $7 now.

Check out steel prices, its ugly. The freeze event in Texas put a hurt on fiberglass resin availability big time. To many monopolies, we rely on these huge companies too much. A couple have major issues and the prices skyrocket. The government has created the issue with all the regulations. Its takes lots of lawyers and politicians to build a big factory.

The lack of warehousing durable goods is frightening, lots of this stress on the supply system is self inflicted. Moving the various parts supply off shore was just plain stupid. I buy very little for my business from the US, the stuff isn't made here anymore. But its good to see our local lumber mills busy for a change.

theoldwizard1 wrote:
The lumber shortage was caused by the large mills. They stopped buying logs early and let their inventory shrink. By the time they realized that demand was up, to was too late to catch up.

Besides, why catch up with demand when you are making HUGE profits !

Not sure where you are but the mills in WA And OR yards are full and buying as usual.

The lumber shortage was caused by the large mills. They stopped buying logs early and let their inventory shrink. By the time they realized that demand was up, to was too late to catch up.

Besides, why catch up with demand when you are making HUGE profits !

Tarriffs, the smoot-hawley act is void I think. And I doubt we get a lot of plywood from China. The SE is littered with lumber mills cranking out plywood, and so is the Northwest.
The lack of workers to fill jobs since they are being paid to stay at home may have something to do with it.
As for Copper, I don't know what the issue is. Tho I see that speculators are driving up the price. Maybe we could reopen some copper mines here in the US.
Or maybe this:

Fortune magazine wrote:
So if wood production is at a 13-year high, why aren’t lumber prices falling faster? Simply put, demand is still through the roof. In April, new housing starts backed off 8% from a 14-year high set in March 2021; however, that level of construction is up 67% from its bottom in April 2020 and up 22% from April 2019. Home construction remains red-hot. Additionally, do-it-yourselfers aren’t slowing down: In April, home improvement sales hit an all-time high—up 31% from pre-pandemic levels.

“The backlog is just too strong. There are too many places to put wood,” says Chip Setzer, director of trading and growth for Mickey Group, a commodity trading platform. “I got customers in the Caribbean screaming for more; I got China customers screaming for more. Everybody is under a squeeze.”

agesilaus wrote:
What about $57 1/4 inch plywood or $7 to $8 2X4's. We aren't allowed to mention the reason for all this.

Sure you can,,tarrifs :P

Those who dont know history will repeat same mistakes
Ronald Reagan on free trade

https://youtu.be/TcDNXMy4VpA

What about $57 1/4 inch plywood or $7 to $8 2X4's. We aren't allowed to mention the reason for all this.