From Deutsche-Welle, September 26:
Metal theft by criminal gangs in Germany is alarming the public and businesses. The resulting disruptions will worsen as copper prices rise.
German railway operator Deutsche Bahn has been struggling for quite a while now. Decades of neglect have left the state-owned company's infrastructure and rolling stock in tatters and its finances in disarray.
Deutsche Bahn's precarious funding is now being additionally burdened by a rising number of copper thefts that in 2022 alone cost the company about €6.6 million ($7 million), according to German business daily Handelsblatt. This year, the newspaper found, copper thefts have already led to 2,644 train delays, totaling well over 700 hours.
As criminals destroy cable ducts to get hold of the valuable base metal, supply chains are disrupted and hundreds of thousands of passengers are getting increasingly frustrated about Deutsche Bahn's unpunctuality.
But it's not only the German national railway company that suffers from the rising theft of so-called nonferrous metals like copper. Copper wiring and pipes are stolen from construction sites. Even church roofs that are often laid with copper plates are no longer safe from acts of criminal wrongdoing.
The most spectacular copper theft of all time in Germany, though, happened at copper manufacturing and recycling company Aurubis in August. The Hamburg-based company disclosed it was a victim of a major theft involving nearly $200 million (€188.7 million) worth of the base metal.
Critical raw material in short supply
After the news of the theft broke at the end of August, Aurubis, Europe's largest copper producer, said it suspected a criminal gang had stolen some of its metal. The company disclosed that due to "considerable discrepancies" in its inventories it would miss its full-year profit guidance....
....MUCH MORE
November 24, 2022
Copper: What's Your Timeframe?
Four from Mining.com:
Tomorrow through month-end? Dollar Index down again is almost mechanistically supportive for commodities priced in bucko's.
Next month? "World’s biggest copper mine moves closer to strike"
Next year? "BHP sees 2-3 years of elevated costs, near-term copper oversupply"
Next decade? "Codelco sees copper deficit at 8 million tonnes by 2032"
For now and into Q2 2023 the West and maybe China have a recession they have to get through.
And enough with this nonsense: "Copper price rises on China’s property support".
As we've said a few times, government support of the overindebted property developers is not nearly the same thing as supporting the construction of new housing.
February 6, 2023
Copper Supply/Demand Is So Close To Balance That Extrinsic Factors...
....like the strength or weakness of the dollar, play an oversized role.
And regarding the business of thieving:
