Metals Prices Are Surging, Post-Election

The prices of key materials used in foodservice equipment and supplies have been moving higher for much of 2016. But the election in the U.S. has combined with a strengthening dollar and an interest rate hike to push prices even higher. As Lisa Reisman, executive editor of MetalMiner wrote in her executive summary to the MetalMiner Index in December, “The bull run in industrial metals is on.”

The commodities pricing research group reports big gains in copper and raw steel prices from November to December. Copper prices, which had been lagging other industrial metals, surged nearly 17% during the month period. Meanwhile, raw steels saw another 14% increase as prices reached a one-year high. Stainless steel prices rose 3.3% and are running ahead of a year ago. Only aluminum, among the metals most often used in E&S, saw a slight price decline of 1.2%.

But MetalMiner expects continuing upward pressure on all the commodities into 2017, as rising infrastructure demand in both China and the U.S., as well as a stronger dollar and rising interest rates affect the markets.