Important industrial raw material: Copper is more expensive than it has been in ten years

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Copper wires in a recycling yard (archive picture): Are new storage sites also being developed?

Photo: Daniel Naupold / dpa

Gold, silver - and soon also copper?

The price for the versatile metal has risen to a record high.

On the commodities exchange in London, the price for a ton climbed 1.4 percent on Friday to $ 10,232.

This clearly exceeded the previous record from 2011.

In the current year alone, the copper price has increased by more than 30 percent.

Many economists consider copper to be an indicator of the state of the world economy, as it is needed in many areas of production.

If its price rises, this is often interpreted as a sign of an economic upturn.

This is why the metal is nicknamed Dr.

Copper.

Other raw materials such as iron ore are also becoming expensive

However, the sharp rise in price could also be due to something else.

"In the hunt for returns, institutional investors have probably also discovered metals as an attractive investment alternative," said Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann.

This applies not least because of the prospect of increasing demand as a result of decarbonization in many countries.

"Metals also play a major role in other future technologies such as 5G."

Other raw materials such as iron ore have also risen sharply in price recently.

The demand for them is currently driven by the prospect of economic recovery: the more people are vaccinated, the more corona restrictions fall - and give hope for economic activity.

At the same time, the supply cannot keep up with the rapidly increasing demand, especially from China.

In addition, there are corona-related problems in the international supply chains, which lead to shortages and delivery delays.

The situation is made more difficult by accidents such as the recent blockade of the important Suez Canal by a huge container ship.

apr / dpa-AFX / Reuters