[Epoch Times October 15, 2021](The Epoch Times reporter Lai Yiqing reported) The recent severe global energy shortage has not only pushed up the prices of electricity and natural gas, but has also led to a decline in the output of smelters in China and Europe. Copper, aluminum, zinc and other metals Prices soared across the board on Thursday (October 14), and the London Metal Exchange (LME) base metal index closed at a new high, with an increase of 35% this year.
Bloomberg reported that the LME base metals index, which tracks six industrial metals, closed up 2.6% to 4,623.4 points on Thursday, a 35% increase this year. Looking at individual metals, aluminum, one of the raw materials with the highest energy consumption, hit the highest point since 2008, closing at US$3,117 per ton (about NT$87,258); zinc closed up 3.7% to US$3,528.5 per ton, on the same day On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the price of zinc soared 7.1% to RMB 25,700 per ton; the price of copper closed up 3.5% to US$9,984 per ton, breaking the US$10,000 mark at one time.
The report pointed out that the energy crisis has put tremendous pressure on supply and demand issues. As manufacturers face rising raw material prices, their concerns about demand have also risen across the board. Among them, China’s pressure is the most obvious. China’s September producer price index (PPI) grew at the fastest growth rate in the past 26 years. Since China is the world’s largest exporter, producer inflation may spread to other economies.
Due to coal shortages, news of China’s large-scale power rationing has been raging, and many provinces have to reduce production capacity in response to power shortages caused by high coal prices. A trader at Shanghai Soochow Jiuying Investment Management Co., Ltd. said that with the energy crisis leading to a large-scale shutdown of smelters and production reductions, it is now also the turn of zinc prices to soar.
The reduction in metal supply has gradually spread from China to Europe, because energy shortages have pushed up the cost of electricity and natural gas and brought greater inflationary pressure. Nyrstar, one of the largest zinc manufacturers, said that due to rising electricity prices and costs related to carbon emissions, the company will cut the output of three European smelters by as much as 50%.
Editor in charge: Yuzhen
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