[MSN] {Spam?} High demand in China still buoying copper theft problem

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High demand in China still buoying copper theft problem  

By Jeff Barnard
ASSOCIATED PRESS

10:44 a.m. February 3, 2008

CAVE JUNCTION, Ore. - Folks calling the Oregon Caves National Monument will
have to be content with leaving a message for a while.

Thieves hacked up and hauled away three miles of telephone and Internet
cable along the twisting mountain road leading to the remote location,
apparently to sell on the thriving scrap market for copper. Burying a new
cable will cost an estimated $3.2 million, so monument Supervisor Craig
Ackerman is working on a microwave link.

"It's not just the dollar amount of damaged federal property," he said.
"It's the disruption of service and operations."

Though the downturn in the U.S. housing market has dimmed the domestic
demand for copper wiring, pipe, and appliances, continuing demand from
China's expanding economy has kept prices high enough - $7,344.50 per U.S.
ton Thursday on the London Metals Exchange - that theft has not abated
significantly since ramping up two years ago, experts say.

"It has been a problem many times over the past 50 or 100 years as the price
of metal gets high," said Chuck Carr, vice president of the Institute of
Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc., based in Washington, D.C.. "The thing that
is different is we seem to be in a supercycle at this point."

Carr said no one keeps national statistics on metal theft, but it has been
hot the past two years, as prices ran up to a peak of more than $4 a pound -
more than $8,000 a ton - in May 2006.

Copper thefts disrupt daily life around the world. Cell phone service is
periodically knocked out in New Jersey because thieves take the cooper bars
that shield towers from lightning. Last month, thieves caused a power outage
for 2,000 customers outside Bloomington, Ind. Thieves pried 34 bronze
plagues carrying the names of World War II dead from a monument on Guam last
summer. Trains in Italy were regularly delayed last fall from thefts of
electrical conductors from the tracks.

Police in Baltimore, Md., figure metal thefts are up more than 600 percent
in the past two years. New York City's park and parkway lampposts have
become a virtual bank for thieves. Copper wire thefts have disabled a weigh
station and knocked out expressway lighting in Washington state.

"It's driving us crazy," state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond said.

Robin Adams of CRU Strategies in Langley, Wash., said that while slowing
economies in the U.S., Japan and Europe are curbing demand for copper, "this
is all swamped by China."

However, the high prices are also spurring development of new sources, which
should bring the market back to balance by 2009, with prices more in the
range of $2,500 to $5,000 a ton, Adams added.

"The key to stopping this kind of thing lies with the scrap buyers," Adams
said in an e-mail from London.

That's what happened last month after a statue of Lewis and Clark
interpreter Sacagawea and her baby was stolen from the Fort Clatsop National
Memorial Park near Warrenton. A scrap dealer in Bend tipped police someone
was trying to sell him something that looked like the statue. Three people
were arrested, but the statue had been hacked to pieces.

Matt Haslett of Metro Metals Northwest of Portland said dealers are
particularly wary of statues, and watch for telltale signs, such as signs
that copper wire was burned to remove the insulation, or someone is selling
material they have no reason to have.

Scrap yards also get e-mail alerts of stolen materials from the Construction
Industry Crime Prevention Program of the Pacific Northwest and the Institute
of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc.

The National Conference on State Legislatures lists 19 states that have
enacted laws intended to curb metal theft, and 19 more where legislation is
pending.

Oregon's new law went into effect Jan. 1 to try to cut off easy money for
methamphetamine addicts who pick up copper wire like pop cans. It requires
scrap dealers to photocopy drivers licenses, note license plates and vehicle
descriptions and take photos and videos of sellers and the material.

"New laws don't do any good if they can't be enforced," said Carr.

He said in places like Macon, Ga., where police, scrap dealers and victims
get together regularly to trade information, metal thefts have dropped
precipitously, but in other places it is just not a priority.

Metal theft is easy money, said Adams.

"Anyone with a one-ton pickup, a cutting device and a strong pair of arms
can grab $5,000 in the time it takes to cut up a cable into manageable
lengths. I reckon that is not more than an hour's hard work," Adams said.

Carr figures stolen metals amount to a small percentage of the $65 billion
scrap dealers handled in 2006.

That would still amount to $2 billion if only 3 percent of the material were
stolen.

Carr added that while demand in China remains the "single driving force"
behind the high prices, only 20 percent of the scrap metal collected in the
U.S. leaves the country.

The cable theft at Oregon Caves was the second in as many years. Back in
November 2006 about 3,000 feet was taken. They were able to replace it for
about $40,000 said Ackerman. Then last November it happened again, and there
is no money to cover the $3.2 million it would cost to bury it under the
roadway, as required by the Oregon Department of Transportation. Historic
bronze light fixtures have also been stolen.

Oregon Caves personnel are working off computers in borrowed space with
other federal agencies in Cave Junction and Grants Pass, or using cell
phones and FM radios at the Caves, Ackerman said.

"The real problem will come in the summer time when cave tours are in full
operation and the concession is running the overnight hotel at the Chateau,"
said Ackerman. 
 
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