The copper market has moved from being in surplus last year to being broadly neutral this year and likely will back in surplus in 2011/12 according to HSBC Bank in a quarterly review. Miners are keeping the market for concentrates relatively tight but there is a surplus of refining capacity with Chinese and Indian refiners [...]
What can be made with old oil cans, vintage roller skates, or antique French binoculars? One answer is “The Family Friend Robot Dog: These delightful sculptures were made by Gulf Coast Florida-based mother-and-son duo reclaim2fame. What they do is evident in their business name. Old and discarded materials are reclaimed to create imaginative objects. As [...]
A Reuters article this week covers an interesting development in the downstream aluminum market as it reports on discussions Norsk Hydro, Europe’s third largest aluminum producer, is having with automotive clients. According to the automotive OEM’s the long term trend of increasing aluminum use would accelerate if OEM’s could secure firm pricing for a number [...]
As an example of what could be in store in the US if the country is ever stupid enough to embrace wholesale the subsidy of renewable energy sources via levies on electricity users a recent report in Bloomberg details the impact of actions taken by the British government on consumers in the UK. Factories will [...]
For those of you unfamiliar with MFG.com you might want to read their brief quarterly survey of North American manufacturers. The study splits questions for two distinct groups: “buyers (large manufacturers and OEM’s and “suppliers (small to medium sized manufacturers). Truthfully, we haven’t followed their quarterly surveys as faithfully as we would like but luckily [...]
There are now so many fake £1 ($1.55) coins in circulation the Royal Mint in Britain could be forced to scrap all of the coins and reissue the entire denomination was the shock opening paragraph in a Telegraph article this week. It is not the first time this issue has been raised. Experts have become [...]
by Lisa Reisman on July 28, 2010
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Category: Environment, Ferrous Metals, Green, Metal Prices, Non-ferrous Metals
Keywords: Aluminum, Copper, Ferrous Metals, Green, Non-ferrous Metals, Steel
Two days ago we examined where our energy comes from (e.g. what sources) and how much we individually consume. The larger point we made related to the fact that the existing bills on carbon cap and trade (including the one that passed the US House of Representatives) do not actually do anything to reduce our [...]
Voices have been raised from many quarters, including these columns, over the last two years about the potential for bad debts in China to arise from the wall of money thrown into infrastructure investments at the urging of the Beijing government. From late 2008 onwards the authorities urged state banks to fund infrastructure projects as [...]
