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Why does copper wire cost so much?

Geo-TH,In

Geo-TH,In

Well-known Member
I noticed the price of scrap copper is around $3, that up. I may be selling my scrap.
Ran across an old article Aug, 2019.
Proposed U.S. tariffs against the European Union over aircraft subsidies could concentrate market control over some supplies of copper alloy in the hands of a German-owned company and hurt American businesses, U.S. industry players said on Monday.
Has the demand for copper increased that much?
Do we import copper wire or is it made in USA?
Will the price ever come down?
I don't have the answers.
What's your opinion?
copper article
 
My guess would be that with the trend going toward building more and more electric contraptions the demand will increase accordingly.

No idea how much copper gets imported but I remember visiting a massive copper mine in Montana about 30 years ago which if still open I would expect it could supply a good share of the domestic demand.

Does the price of anything ever come down?

My opinion is hang onto those old radiators, pipe and wire scrap it might fetch a good dollar at the scrapyard if you can wait long enough.
 
Mornin Neighbor, sorry I have no answer as to copper prices, maybe someone who has the time will be kind enough to research and deeper Google the topic and provide us THEIR opinion. However, with sooooooo much money and politics and global issues surrounding such a complex subject, I wouldn't bet the farm or invest based on what is posted here or even so called experts may have to say as even they disagree. TOO DEEP FOR ME TO TAKE THE TIME TO ANSWER Im just glad I dont have to buy any copper wire soon lol

Buy low sell high is my advice

John T in the RV slowlyyyyyyyyyyyy working my way North its getting too hot down here
 
I read an article a few years ago about the Chinese buying the copper mines in Wisconsin and shipping the ore out to China to process,seemed to me at the time it would not be cost effective but if the price is high enough maybe it is.
 
(quoted from post at 13:50:34 03/28/21) I noticed the price of scrap copper is around $3, that up. I may be selling my scrap.
Ran across an old article Aug, 2019.
Proposed U.S. tariffs against the European Union over aircraft subsidies could concentrate market control over some supplies of copper alloy in the hands of a German-owned company and hurt American businesses, U.S. industry players said on Monday.
Has the demand for copper increased that much?
Do we import copper wire or is it made in USA?
Will the price ever come down?
I don't have the answers.
What's your opinion?
copper article

Not wire but related to copper. In Sept. 2005 I bought 5 60' rolls of 3/4" K (heavy) copper for $109.00 each to make a heating system. On labor day the following year I was in Menards and noticed the very same product was $249 per roll.

Does this indicate we might be nearing the end of another real estate bubble?
Click to expand...
 
I needed 12g to do a little job in garage.
Instead of buying new, I used two short pieces of 10 g and added a receptacle.

A country boy can survive without spending a fortune.
George
 
conductivity (10.E6 Siemens/m) resistivity (10.E-8 Ohms.m)
Silver 62,1 1,6
Copper 58,7 1,7
Gold 44,2 2,3
Aluminum 36,9 2,7

Silver is so much more dear than copper, it is going to be the conductor of the future as much as it is today
As electric cars become mandatory, the demand will escalate dramatically. Reductions in home wire gauge and more specialized sockets for lighting circuits based on LED current draw and voltage will not be much of a change. Housing construction across much of the US has also pulsed upward, and it is also a major driver of demand. Jim
 
I bought a 250' roll of 12-2 romex last week for $108. I could have bought that same roll a few months ago from the same seller for $88.
 
The Kennecott Utah Copper (gold) mine is a very large operation and it only supplies 20% of US demand of copper. It has to come from somewhere
 
I'm with John T on this one - not even gonna try to give any answers. However, I can offer a couple of things that should be figured into the overall conversation. I have a friend who owns a mine in South Dakota. He used to tell me how there were getting to be fewer and fewer ore processors in the USA. Also, how to transport ores from a mine to a processor, especially if no railroads nearby. Laws and regulations keep getting more strict, making it so that hard rock mining becomes less and less possible domestically unless you can do everything on-site, and even that is a bit of a nightmare.
 
With windmills scattered all over the countryside and connected by underground copper wires you'd think it was cheap.
 
This has happened before and prices on commodities fluctuate with demand and supply issues. Back when gas was over $4 a gallon did you ever think (or the experts predict) that is would be bellow $2 again? The pandemic is affecting almost everything right now and the ship blocking the Suez Canal is adding to it. I believe a lot of it is panic, but panic is real and has effects. The stock market plunges or soars based on a few spoken or printed words. It's all nuts. Capitalize on it when you can and ride it out when you have to. It will change. OK, enough of my philosophy for now.
 
George, the price of the copper does not bother me as much as what is going to happen to the price of what it carries.
Richard
 
Supply and demand. If prices stay high, production will increase. But in the near term, the less ore the mines produce the more money they make.

Supposedly about 40 percent of copper production overall is recycled material. BUT, electrical wire is almost all newly-refined metal. I assume recycled copper has some undesirable electrical and/or mechanical properties.
 
There's not that much copper in a bullet, just the jacket. The cases are brass, and there's more brass in a cartridge than copper.
 
(quoted from post at 12:21:20 03/28/21) There's not that much copper in a bullet, just the jacket. The cases are brass, and there's more brass in a cartridge than copper.
Click to expand...
rass is copper and zinc.
 
The generators atop those towers are wound with copper. As I understand it, that's currently where most of the new copper is going. Iowa's electric rate for investor owned Mid-American is just over 10 a KWH. Iowa's getting close to 60% of its electricity from the wind.
 
A lot of demand right now so as long as companies can keep selling all their production they will keep raising the price until they can't sell
all they produce.Sound financial way to operate.
 
(quoted from post at 11:21:20 03/28/21) There's not that much copper in a bullet, just the jacket. The cases are brass, and there's more brass in a cartridge than copper.
Click to expand...

Barnes TTSX bullets are 100% copper.
 
(quoted from post at 06:32:01 03/28/21) I needed 12g to do a little job in garage.
Instead of buying new, I used two short pieces of 10 g and added a receptacle.

A country boy can survive without spending a fortune.
George
Click to expand...

Listening to that song when I read this.
 
I'm in the construction industry. For over a year now I've been busier than I have ever been in my life and I'm not the only one. All that work going on there is a shortage of everything. Then to add to nnalert the tornado's in Alabama and the weather in the Nashville area is just going to drive the costs through the roof and you'll be lucky you can get it.
 
4.00$ fuel 90$ a pail hydraulic oil tires that cost as much as a house. Nobody wants to get out of bed for less than 45$ an hour and double time after 30 hours
 
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