Energy crisis drives up prices for industrial metalshttps://www.handelsblatt.com/finanzen/maerkte/devisen-rohstoffe/kupfer-zink-aluminium-chaos-an-den-rohstoffboersen-energiekrise-treibt-die-preise-fuer-industriemetalle-in-die-hoehe/27720272.html Chaos on the commodity exchanges - energy crisis drives up prices for industrial metals
Global inventories of copper, aluminum and co. are falling rapidly. This development is fueling concerns about new bottlenecks in industry.
Zurich - Even long-time market observers have not yet experienced this: Within a few weeks, commodity traders bought up almost the entire stock of copper held by the London Metal Exchange (LME) in its warehouses.
Inventories fell from 240,000 tons at the end of August to around 14,000 tons at the beginning of this week. That's the lowest level since 1974, and according to the Bloomberg news agency, Swiss commodity trader Trafigura in particular secured large quantities.
The tight inventories trigger strong price movements: Copper for immediate delivery increased in price by 25 percent since the beginning of October. The price of the industrial metal briefly climbed to over $11,000.
In addition, the ton of copper for immediate delivery was temporarily $1,000 more expensive than the same quantity of the reddish metal for delivery in three months. Usually, the two prices differ by only a few dollars.
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