Copper Caper

Timothy Birdnow

Get ready; a rash of theft of plumbing copper is on the horizon.

According to this article in Oil Prices.com:

Others will be buying, too, driving sustained demand growth: utilities and carmakers were two import buyers, according to Layton. The basis for the prediction is the switch to wind and solar, which require a lot of copper, especially wind, and EVs, which contain times more copper than internal combustion engine cars.

"If you want to put on a decarbonization trade in commodities, the only truly liquid commodity is copper, and it’s the most liquid by a country mile,”Layton told Bloomberg. "Copper’s unique characteristics mean that it could make oil’s 2008 bull run look like child’s play.”

Commodity majors such as Glencore and Trafigurahave been warning about a coming shortage of copper, because of the expected surge in demand driven by energy transition efforts.

That means copper will be stolen from vacant or temporarily empty homes. Copper pipes. Copper wires, anything with copper will wind up being stolen and sold.

This will drive the cost of plumbing up I might add.

Trafigura’s co-head of metals and minerals, Kostas Bintas, meanwhile, forecast that copper prices will surge to over $10,000 per ton over the net 12 months and maybe even reach $12,000 because of the gap between demand and supply.

So we will pay through the nose for plumbing and get exactly what out of it?  Tiny toy cars that burst into flames. And this because we won't use our vast reserves of oil out of fear of hot air.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:58 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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