Wowee The Insane Rise Of Copper Price

[MEXICOWANDERER]

If you need wire for future projects, my advice is to buy is to buy it NOW rather than put it off. The prospects for ten dollar per pound commodity price is no longer absurd.

A trip to Home Despot or Lowe's will put the fear in you. Like lumber, the cost is a knee buckler. The copper mines down here are nowhere near capacity, so it isn't an issue of supply shortage.

Mexico is supplying a large percentage of distribution transformers to Electricity Utilities in North America.

Prices for welding cable will jump as old inventory needs to be replaced.

I inventoried up with a few thousand feet of wire the last five years. I still have a thousand feet of Space Shuttle refit wire in Michoacán, but it's 10 gauge and larger. Here, it's 12 gauge and smaller.

The cost of copper terminals has jumped as well.

[free_radical]

Almot wrote:

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.

There is a couple of reasons that I can think of.

1) Covid-induced demand, people add a home office for remote work and/or move from condos to the 'burbs away from crowds. They were also renovating more, having nothing else to do for a year - same reason caused a spike in appliances and recreational items.

2) China is not supplying lumber so tariffs don't matter. However, China is buying lumber. They did an exemplary job containing the epidemic in the country (after letting it out to the world), their lockdowns were real, masking was not optional, and after 3 months it was over. They are now fully open, economy is growing.

Tramp started trade WAR w China and sudenly there was bad virus,quite a coincidence,yes.didnt worked out as planned tho

Covid origins points towards FtDetrick biolab that failed to contain it,

https://youtu.be/cdKI5qOF_a8

[MEXICOWANDERER]

México produces an awful lot of copper. They refine it and use domestic production in the manufacture of insulated wire, and copper transformer windings. A user can I.D. made in México wire: Beneath a skin of color the insulation is white. Stranding is similar to THHN.
Tin, silver, and lead are also big down here.
Pine for furniture but it's not kiln dried.
Surplus DLO cable was reasonably priced. Not anymore. Boat cable, the white jacketed duplex and triplex is absolutely outrageous.
RVs contain a lot of wire and wood so that means really sad future news.

[free_radical]

noteven wrote:

free radical wrote:

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 😛

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

https://youtu.be/TcDNXMy4VpA

Early in the speech he says "...free trade with free people..."

This has morphed into "as much buying from the cheepest producer regardless of who or where or how...."

Our msm anti china fake news never stops Lol

Many people think chinese are locked in camps workin as slaves for their rich overlord, :B

Reality is quite diferent watch

https://youtu.be/n8JTmpnMwLI

[Almot]

I think it's the spike in demand that drives copper up, not so much shortage of supply.

Top copper-producing countries are Chile, Peru and China, the US comes the 4th.

I don't think in Chile they send a lot of people to work remote, in any industry. Same in Peru. People put masks on and go. One gets sick, another one takes his place.

In China it's been business as usual for more than a year, their lockdowns ended in March 2020 though they had a valid reason - the epidemic practically ended for them. They are still getting daily cases from returning travelers, less than 100 a day - for a country of 1,400,000,000. Factories have been running full power since March 2020, need copper.

[grizzzman]

mr_andyj wrote:
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.

It is sure great people see what is really going on

[S_Davis]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
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.

3/0 DLO is up $1.68 per foot from when I bought it last year, almost $5.50 per foot now.

[wa8yxm]

corv65MK wrote:
We have to pay for the lazy ones that wont work just stay home and collect unemployment.Business trying to hire new employees due to they make more staying home.Prices every where crazy.

Well you almost have a point.
We have been paying many of them all along
There are several companies, like Wal*mart, where many (over half for WM) of the workers qualify for Food Stamps.. So we the people are subsidizing WM because WM should be paying them as they work there. I have a lot more against WM but .. enough for now.

Restaurants can pay TIPPED workers as little as 2.50/hr (Note I may have rounded a bit) federal minimum is 7.75. They are expected to earn 5.35 or more in tips every hour.. That Tip I leave is to thank the waiter/ress for the prompt service NOT the management. Management gets the profit on the meal. Walking in the door and ordering is thanking them... This is pure theft and should be illegal.

One Ice Cream parlor decided to try 15.00/hr (He was getting no applicants) got 1,500 applicants dang near over night.

he hired some.. they are still with him, As they gain experience they make fewer mistakes... he's not had to hire new folks and train 'em (Costly) and many customers well they are greeted by name and the order is already in the works (That happens to me on Sunday mornings at one restaurant, they don't even give me a menu.. I know what I want and so do that.. Of course that dish is why I'm there 🙂 )

The result. No price increase and no profit decrease.

[time2roll]

How do you mine, process and transport copper when ordered to work from home? Or when your coworkers are sick at home?
Same goes for about every other "shortage" right now.
This too shall pass.... a few months after the world is vaccinated. (not just the US)

[Almot]

jdc1 wrote:
When things settle down, a sheet of 1/2" OSB will decrease form $70 to $25. This will make mills, truckers, loggers, retailers, wholesalers all a real good profit...and you'll feel good too, no longer paying that $70/sheet. Give it until next spring.

It's already happening: Lumber Prices Post Biggest–Ever Weekly Drop With Buyers Balking.

Copper could be a different story.

[gbopp]

I just came from Lowes and Home Depot. A 250' roll of 12-2 Romex at HD was $160.00. At Lowes it was $140.
I'm sure it will go up.

[thomasmnile]

If nothing else, I hope people along the Gulf & Atlantic coasts saved their plywood from hurricanes of the past. At 60-80 bucks a sheet......

[Almot]

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.

There is a couple of reasons that I can think of.

1) Covid-induced demand, people add a home office for remote work and/or move from condos to the 'burbs away from crowds. They were also renovating more, having nothing else to do for a year - same reason caused a spike in appliances and recreational items.

2) China is not supplying lumber so tariffs don't matter. However, China is buying lumber. They did an exemplary job containing the epidemic in the country (after letting it out to the world), their lockdowns were real, masking was not optional, and after 3 months it was over. They are now fully open, economy is growing.

[S_Davis]

The price is one thing but in the HVAC trade you are having issues even getting materials, I had a customer that had to go five weeks with no heat or hot water because Bradford White didn’t have the parts to make the piece of equipment. Copper fittings are through the roof, it makes bidding real fun.

[jdc1]

wapiticountry wrote:
At least in our part of the country there truly was a lumber shortage. You couldn't buy a bunk of OSB at any price. Yards were rationing purchases to 10 sheets or less. The reasons were many.
COVID shut down mills, Cross Border trade with Canada was drastically curtailed and the Canadian lumber wasn't entering the market. Tariffs on lumber were increased in response to Canadian Tariffs on Cheese. (politics aside, it makes no sense to me to equate a necessary commodity like lumber with cheese, but the political mind works in strange ways)
Now, there is some inventory, but it is likely the yards bought it at market highs and need to bleed it off. Wholesale futures are down about 30% from the highs but plummeting retail prices would bankrupt the retailers that are now stuck with inventory they paid and arm and a leg to get. My WAG (wild arse guess) is we will see a gradual decline in the retail price over the next few months. Then we will settle into the new normal of high, but not quite ridiculously high, long term prices for lumber. Just like fuel, Food, travel, RV sites and everything else.

This is EXACTLY what is happening and what will happen afterwords. Economists have so much as said this is what they foresee. When things settle down, a sheet of 1/2" OSB will decrease form $70 to $25. This will make mills, truckers, loggers, retailers, wholesalers all a real good profit...and you'll feel good too, no longer paying that $70/sheet. Give it until next spring. Prices would drop faster if EVERYONE went out and bought out today's inventory, but.....
Every time I talk to a contractor, the first thing to pop up is the cost of lumber. I have to shut them down when it comes to politics. I remind them of which states provide the lumber, beef, pork and grain.