TincToc

What is going on with copper?! Prices are rising, I think they fell once, but now it’s going up and up. Job quotes are lost because of building wire prices, and the company that gets the job goes under because they quoted low prices on a commodity that they are going to lose a lot of money on. Although there are many of the smart folk out there who will only give a price to the end of the day before it changes. Many people take the opportunity to make the end user pay for copper as it is needed or pay depending on market value , day of the job.

It is crazy to hear all of the stories of vandals and thieves killing themselves for 20 feet of copper wire. Even if they get away with it there are stories of the people who were broken into and had wire stolen from their buildings and companies who had it stolen by the reel from their warehouses.

One of the greater problems with this is the rate at which copper wire is being stolen and bought by recycling venues. Even though there are some cities that have put a ban on buying wire that there is no receipt of purchase for, there are many that will buy all that they can.

I believe that the cities that have put bans on the purchase of “stolen” (in quotes because it cannot be proven) mainly because they have had many thousands of feet stolen from their cities sites and must pay the cost to replace what was stolen. These cities know the pain of having copper stolen from them by the financial burden it places on them. Many cities are still there believing that it won’t happen to them as bad as their neighbor. With prices jumping up the ladder, they will be hit eventually because there will be more money in it.

My recommendation, put a ban on the rule-free purchase of wire by ALL recycling houses and there will be fewer injuries and a lot of money saved by local governments, benefiting all in the long run.

TincToc…