Posted by David Sheman on Thursday, March 25, 2004 at 2:32AM :
In Reply to: New copper wire prices are up 50% posted by Allen Patnode on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 at 5:53PM :
Yesterday I paid $16 for a roll of 14/2 romex at the local hardware store. Today I went back for more and they said it's now $26. 1/2" copper pipe that was $2.50 last year is now $4.85. The guy that owns the store told me that their supplier will fill their current order but is not even taking any more orders for copper. They expect copper to hit $3/lb by June. He went looking all over the country for some 100,000 lbs of 1/4 steel plate for a customer and finally found some at $700/ton. Last year it was $320/ton. Guy called from Alaska desperate for 1-1/4" rigid conduit, said he couldn't find any in Alaska.
He said the Chinese are buying up all the scrap from all over the world -- steel, copper, aluminum, even lead. Yep even old car batteries are now worth something. There was an ad in the nickel want ads from somebody wanting to buy large piles of junk. They'd not just haul it away but they'd pay for it. Last year you couldn't get anybody to haul off a junk car if you gave it to them. I'm afraid a lot of old junkyards and farmer's boneyards are on the way to China right now.
This is a real big problem, and I haven't heard a word of it on the news, nor any word about all the other inflation that's kicking in. The only thing that isn't going up is wages. The Chinese have us by the short-&-curly's and we'll be in a world of hurt in a couple years the way things are going. I need about 25 rolls of romex and 300' of pipe, mostly 1-1/4" for the building I'm working on. I sure wish I'd bought it last year. I wonder if I should buy now before it doubles in price or should hold off until I actually need each roll or stick and hope the price comes down.