Auntie Fowling - Buy now, whilst stocks last...

[Mirelle]

I just thought I should mention that merchant shipping firms have been unpleasantly surprised by rises in the cost of antifouling lately.

The price of oil, the feedstock for most paint chemicals, has been going up, whilst the price of copper has just shot up 40% and is expected to rise a lot more.

Since yottifouling paint is more or less the same stuff, in smaller, prettier, tins, it would be wise to assume that the same thing will happen.

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[AlexL]

Aparently the price of all metals is going through the roof - I read an article the other day that said that China were buying 40% of the entire world's steel production - I guess theyre doing the same on all materials - combined with the oil price rise this is going to be an unpleasent suprise for most manufactured goods.

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[Trevethan]

I report on base metals for Reuters, so at last I can talk knowledgeably about something on here!

The price of copper peaked at about $3,040 on the London Metal Exchange in April this year from a low of about $1336 in November 2001. Over 100 pct increase.

However, i'd be wary of going long of copper just now. Current price is $2,843 and while we might re-visit highs, most there are lot of people looking for a price fall. (You can read all about inon Tuesday when we publish our 2005 price poll for base metals)

Wonder what the price was when TCM was doing his trip and the copper foil peeled off. Think maybe some enterprising dock workers were trying to make a few quid on the side.

Of course, if you are looking for ballast, you are screwed lead has almost triplied to near $900 a tonne.

If you need anodes, the news is better. zinc is up but not by that much and there are big stocks in dubai.

Nickel is up by around 100 pct so dearer stainless.



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[Mirelle]

Actually, I'm involved in all this. It's not so much steel production, as the raw materials for it, that they are buying. There have even been cargoes of iron ore shipped from Narvik all the way round Africa to China, a journey which costs more, per ton, than the ore itself. And lots and lots of oil, of course...

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[Mirelle]

Not the moment for ordering a copper-nickel boat?

Drat - a missed opportunity!

And I actually am in the market for a ton or so of lead!

Seriously, I'm no end impressed. (The things you learn on ybw!)

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[silverseal]

Most commercial shipping companies use TBT tributyltin.

China is not using quantites of tin so I dont expect the prices to go up radically. But you dear reader are comitting a criminal offence if you use tbt, so you are using preparation based on copper which is going up in price . Power to the consumer ....... I think not!

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[Mirelle]

Please allow me to correct you on one point..

I work for a large commercial shipping company.

Tributyl tin antifouling was banned for use on all merchant ships, world wide, by the International Maritime Organisation, with effect from 1st January 2003; many ships had stopped using it before then, not least because Japan had banned it many years earlier so any ship built in Japan from the early 1990s was tin free.

Therefore, commercial ships use the same, copper based, stuff as yachts, but in different (harder) formulations. In fact antifouling technology is back to where it was in the 1970's before TBT came in.

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[VicS]

I suggest that the cost of the materials is a small fraction of the price we pay for AF, but I'll let someone else do the arithmetic and let me know if I'm wrong.

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[DepSol]

and to add to this they are buying loads of shredded paper so that they can mulch it to make cardboard wrapping.

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<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.soltron.co.uk>the website</A>

 

[Mirelle]

Yes, but it\'s \"cost plus\"!

The price we pay is a multiplier of the raw materials price - yes, the swindler is putting 100% (say) mark up on the distributor's wholesale price, and the distributor is putting a fat mark up on the paint company's price, and the paint company is charging more for selling it in yottitins in yottiquantities, but that original price is derived from the cost of materials - we just get the price increase multiplied a few times!

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[Mirelle]

The USA\'s biggest containerised export, by volume

is, indeed, waste paper. But since the US export trade in waste paper is controlled by the Mob, there have been cases of medical waste, etc. being mixed in with it, which has caused the Chinese government to hit the roof and they prefer to buy from Europe. I am not making this up, honestly.

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[Trevethan]

Beg to differ re: tin... Chinese consumption is up after they closed a lot mibes following accidents tine is near its highest since September 89 -- admittedly not as high as when the World Tin Councill "managed" prices....

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