Hitting a baseball.
The key to comedy.
Buying copper over the past two weeks.
Timing is everything.
After tED magazine skipped last Friday’s report on copper prices, we noticed a you could have paid anywhere from $4.01 a pound (Tuesday, September 21) to $4.31 a pound (Monday, September 27) over the past two weeks.
When we last reported on copper prices back on September 17, we saw similar volatility, and by the end of the week, the price settled at $4.27 a pound. Today, we are at $4.06 a pound, but it wasn’t a slow and steady decline. It was more like driving on a really old cobblestone road.
It only took hours before the price of copper dropped to $4.09 a pound before settling at $4.11 a pound on Monday, September 20. But two days later, the rebound returned, with the price jumping as high as 4.27 pound before landing at $4.25 on September 22.
Prices steadied over the next three days, and reached a peak over the two week period by hitting $4.31 on Monday of this week. News that there is still a copper deficit in comparison with demand kept prices high at the beginning of the week.
But within 48 hours, the drop started. Power restrictions in China curbed demand, and the price dropped more than 4% over the next three days.
To recap, over the past 14 days the price of copper started at $4.27, fell to $4.01, spiked back up to $4.31, and then fell back to where it is today at $4.07. Depending on the timing of your purchase, you either spent a lot or saved a lot.
Looking at the price of copper with a little wider view, you can see the price of copper started the month of September just below $4.21 a pound, and will end the month about 14 cents lower.
And compared to the price six months ago, copper is up only 7 cents a pound from the closing price on March 31. But during the summer, the price hit a record high of $4.84 a pound and at one point dipped below $4.00.
Analysts are predicting the price of copper will remain above $4 a pound for the rest of 2021 as demand continues to grow and supplies lag behind.
Tagged with copper
This story addresses only the cost of raw copper but many might deduce that copper WIRE prices will fluctuate by the same %. In fact, and more than ever before, copper wire prices include fixed costs and other component costs that are at historic high levels and do NOT fluctuate with this market. Maybe an article for another time? How copper content is a smaller % of copper wire pricing than ever before?