Posted on 02/26/2017 2:51:08 PM PST by blam
Not long ago, Dr. Copper was sick. Today the doctor is looking a lot healthier.
It’s been a rough few years for copper. Since hitting all-time highs of US$10,250/metric tonne in February 2011, it has suffered nearly 6 years of tumbling prices. As shown in the graph below, copper fell 58 percent from its all-time highs to its lows in January 2016. But in the last year, the industrial metal’s fortunes have begun to reverse. Last year copper was up 17.4 percent, and in 2017 so far it’s up 8 percent to nearly $6,000/mT. It’s up 40 percent increase from its lows in January 2016.
Making copper pricey again
The election of Donald Trump brought with it bullish sentiment for Dr. Copper (so called because the price of copper reflects health of the global economy). Many commodities have responded positively since the election in the “Trump rally” – that is, that the new US president will follow through on campaign promises to cut taxes, increase spending, and bolster economic growth.
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(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Follow gold, silver and even palladium.
know nothing about copper.
any experts out there have any input?
We’re all adults here and at the end of the day need to do our own DD.
But some insight would help :)
Copper is used in various grades of steels (stainless etc). If copper is going up that would mean manufacturing output is stronger. Supply and demand.
Great, price of ammo going to go up again...
Copper basically follows the building industry ups and downs.
The good news for this is that there is a mining company who has taken steps to start mining in the copper country of the UP of Mich. That area has the largest deposits of float copper in the world. Some of it 95% pure copper.
If they can only figure out how to get it out of the ground.
There are claims that it was actually originally mines there thousands of years ago.
Scavengers, Honest ones, still playing the waiting game
Made a nice profit.
Missed the top but also missed the bottom.
Copper is good for long term.
Yup.
Much copper was mined there before the Europeans arrived in 1492. Many archaeologists say that the American Indians don't have it. Others say, ancients from Europe, maybe even Egypt mined it many years ago for making bronze during the early Bronze Age.
Missing: 500,000 Tons Of Copper
For some 1800 years, beginning abruptly about 3000 BC, some industrious peoples mined ore equivalent to 500,000 tons of copper from Michigan's Isle Royale and Keweenaw Peninsula. Who were these mysterious miners, and what happened to all all that copper? It certainly hasn't been found in the relics of North American Indians. And where was the ore smelted? About all the unidentified miners left behind are some of the crude tools they used to pound out chunks of ore from their pit mines (5000 pit mines on Isle Royale alone). Outside of some cairns and slabrock ruins, there is little to help pin down these miners. Mainstream archeologists attribute all these immense labors to a North American "Copper Culture" -- certainly not to copper-hungry visitors from foreign shores. Admittedly, many copper artifacts have been dug up from North American mounds, but only a tiny fraction of the metal the Michigan mines must have yielded."
Float Copper
THERE IS LOTS OF COPPER NEXT TO/UNDER SHAFT NUMBER #10 OF BISBEE
US is 8% of world copper market, in a good year. Has to be more to the story than the US. BHP and Rio Tonto both put the global market in deficit by 2020, but Caterpillar says tough sledding in the near term. Too many other deflationary forces intact at the moment for me (discounting by autos, stalling housing starts, iron ore price, etc.). But we’ll see. After the disagreement on value there is a consensus on price.
Wow, thanks for posting. The things you learn on FR....
I’m in the sheet metal business. The price of copper doesn’t affect me as much as it used to. We now primarily work in aluminum, which is much cheaper.
Even so, our main supplier has recently been forced to raise their prices by 6%. The market in my field is so competitive, we’re not sure if we’ll be able to pass that increased cost on to our customers, or whether we’re going to be forced to eat it.
Silver City, NM is not mined out yet either.
When I left that town in 1986 copper was about 47 cents per lb. about production cost.
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