Lead (Pb) price continues to skyrocket

You're going to have to put a burglar alarm on that sailboat keel of yours...

Apparently the Chinese are putting it in lipstick and paint for toys.:)

the chinese are using up all the lead to make paint for toys.

Somehow I don't think the metal thieves will be going after gunners or my backstops. ;)

Wes

Im gonna have to start using silver or gold for bullets....

Gunner

The Chinese are not paronoid like we are in the US. We treat lead like U238 uranium because of all the hype from the media. Don't eat lead or lead paint. Dont eat s*it either, neither is too good for you.

John

So, it is OK to paid baby toys with s*it then?

A certain, large, chunk of all commodities prices going up is because the value of the dollar is going down.

There are also factors of increased demand for limited resources (especially in the case of copper but also for other common metals) and everything mineral-agro-industrial is strongly tied to fuel/energy prices too.

Tim.

Wes

I believe silver is traditional, Lone Ranger.

Oh! And stay the hell away from my keel!

Ditto copper -- as in brass. Ammo prices have risen accordingly. Mr. Paulsen at Wells Fargo says there's no reason to think this rise in commodity prices won't continue for a while.

I had a blood lead check a couple years ago. It barely registered on the results.

Gunner, bullet caster and shooter

:)

Gunner

But its really really hard to cast bullets out of it. Moulds dont fill out very well.

BTDT

Gunner

The value of these pundits' opinion is slightly below zero.

I never pay attention to what they are saying.

My only commodity experience was buying silver and selling it several years later for 2x.

Not the point, though. The chinese know that we don't allow lead in our toys and toothpaste, and they use it in products exported to us anyway. They've killed our pets by poisoning wheat gluten, by contaminating it with chemicals to make it test higher in a primitive protein test. We've gone well past the point of them trading in good faith, and at this point, they're exploiting the "most favored trade nation status" that clinton gave them in exchange for those campaign contributions.

I think it's time we revoke the special deals that clinton gave the chinese. And I _really_ think that, instead of just saying "wups, sorry about that" and recalling the items they get caught on, the American companies who import this tainted crap should get fined into oblivion.

Not hard at all, just cast the from bee's wax and investment cast the new bullet. Did a whole line of jewelery like that back in the 70's. Never did try to reload with them though, wonder how silver would wear a barrel?

Except they still only give you 7 cents a pound for scrap, even for ingot lead. Otherwise I'd sell a few tons and retire. Worth more as bullets and slugs to me right now.

Probably smelters of lead from ore are under a lot more enviromental constraints, they've either closed doors or had to increase prices to stay open. Also, all those new cars the Chinese are buying each need a starting battery. Has to come from somewhere.

Stan

That's true, and it's going on all over the world.

They come from China. China is the world's largest producer of lead. And they just slapped a 10% export tariff on it, to keep it at home.

Between the supply disruptions, partly due to environmental problems and partly due to a confluence of manufacturing problems that have been occurring lately, and partly due to China's export tariff, the commodity futures traders have reacted by driving up the futures prices. That has a backdraft effect that's driven up current prices. Bloomberg, American Metal Market, and the commodities newspapers have been covering it.

The shortages of copper are more severe, but they're coming from a somewhat different mix of causes. Consumption is *way* up, again, from China, and to a lesser degree from India.

-- Ed Huntress