The copper market is constantly changing, besides product information there is a rapidly growing need for real-time price information and stock information of LME copper.
The LME copper contract is the second largest traded contract on the LME (London Metal Exchange). Copper prices are very important for many companies. The prices, opening stocks and the forward price curve for copper are available in our real-time software. Additionally we give access to average copper prices, history, trade prices, trend charts, news and much more.
Copper theft
At the beginning of the crisis in 2008 there was many news about copper thefts. All the news was about stolen copper like, clocks, lightning, power lines, covers and pipelines. Copper was a very popular product for many thieves. Thefts have temporarily been somewhat less, but in recent months the copper thief is back again. The cause of copper theft is obviously rising copper prices, making it very lucrative for thieves to steal this metal and sell it for cash.
Mining
At this time a total of one third of all copper ore in the world comes from mines in Chile. Besides Chile, America and Peru also produce copper. America and Peru account for sixteen percent of the total world production of this metal.
The biggest copper mines are therefore in Chile. In the eighties there were several large mining projects designed to insure that the copper supply in subsequent years grew considerably. That time has passed by. In the first year, copper mining is easy but eventually the copper mine gets exhausted, making the production of copper go down. Then it becomes increasingly difficult to win copper ore. An additional disadvantage is that subsequently the quality of copper significantly goes down.
The largest miners in the world, BHP Billiton, Xstrata and Freeport McMoran have great difficulty in meeting the growing demand. During the past five years, these miners have unfortunately not succeeded in their goals in relation to the achievements of the copper extraction.
New mines
Most major copper producers try to replace the drop in production by starting new mining projects in the world and then try to win new copper ore quickly. This is a logical but a very time-consuming decision. The development of new copper mines takes an average ten years and requires huge capital investment.
Fluctuation
With rapidly changing development of copper prices on the LME for companies dealing in this metal, such as construction business, dealers and installers, it is very important to respond immediately to price fluctuations. This information can earn or save companies a lot of money and will directly hit their profit. This requires real-time copper LME pricing information, enabling these companies to respond quickly to price fluctuations on the market.
