A penny for your thoughts is worth more than a penny...

Yup. In the industry I work in (no, I won't bore you with details) we use a great deal of copper based cable. In the recent past, the price of copper in general has skyrocketed. In some cases, copper based products have doubled in cost over the last three years. Why is that?

According to reports, there are two main factors for the rise in copper prices. The first is a drought condition in the country of Chile, which produces about 40% of the worlds copper. The drought has caused problems with their hydro-electric power plants, thus putting a dent in the copper production efforts.

The second factor is ever increasing demand for copper from China. An unconfirmed report at this time states that the nation is constructing a new, very large building which will require enormous amounts of the metal for it's construction.

What does this mean to you and me? Rising cost of any work requiring copper wiring or pipe. The upside to this is that scrap yards are paying record prices for the metal, so maybe you should take a page out of my book. Save up a good bit of copper scraps, and go drop it off for a few extra pennies.
:)

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