This is Part Two of a two part series. You can read Part One here
The Baltic Dry Index which tracks the costs of chartering a ship for commodities such as iron ore and coal - we wrote about this earlier in the year - has risen by over 60% according to this Financial Times article. […]

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This is Part One of a two part series.  
I thought I would write a blog post to try and make sense of a few articles I took a look at over the weekend. I’ll try to relay the quick facts behind each article. They all appeared last week and all came from the Financial Times. To […]

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Zinc is one of few commodities that appears to be bucking the trend of relentless price increases. The metal has come off from USD 4260/ton last year to below USD 2300/ton this year driven by a perception that supply exceeds demand. Where will it go from here?
Zinc consumption has been increasing at something like 3% […]

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Way, way back in the early 1990s, my mood ring and slap bracelet were the coolest thing since kindergarten. Remember those? Slap bracelets didn’t stick around for long, probably because of parents like mine banning them from the house. Mood rings, on the other hand, came and went throughout the years. Apparently, they were big […]

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There was a time when if the price of a metal doubled in a year it would be the stuff of headlines. Not only trade journals, but newspapers and even TV channels would post features on the dramatic price rise and the ensuing calamity that was likely to follow – whether it be a crash […]

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Several weeks ago, a gentleman that we know (no, this is not an Eliot Spitzer story), mentioned to us that he was looking to re-source a number of different assemblies that he currently has in China, hopefully to Mexico. The assemblies are fabricated parts, quite heavy by weight, powder coated with some welds. It’s a […]

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There is an interesting debate going on in the aluminum world that is quite probably being mirrored across other metals categories, namely - which way will the price for semi finished metals go the balance of this year? Aluminum semis prices are driven largely by the ingot price but also by the premium mills can charge for […]

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It occurred to me recently that we do a lot of talking, writing, and maybe even some whining on the subject of supply and demand. And we have largely concluded that 2008 thus far — from a metals perspective — has shown itself to be a challenging year for ’supply’. The energy crises, the shortages, […]

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When doomsday hits and Mel Gibson’s world of “Mad Max” becomes a reality, at least those with piles of canned goods and precious metals should be safe.
At least, that’s the idea that some survivalists — or those that practice “extreme preparedness” — seem to share. “The traditional face of survivalism is that of a shaggy […]

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Some of you may remember hearing from us several weeks ago regarding plant shut downs in China in the run-up to the Olympics. Well, it has been decided for sure, according to my friend Richard Brubaker who writes a terrific blog at All Roads Lead to China and has been covering this story. But the plant […]

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