MACRO AND MICRO ECONOMICS Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

MACRO AND MICRO ECONOMICS - Assignment Example During their climax, copper was very costly in the global markets to an extent some coins made of copper were more worth than their face value. The following discussion will address the trends in the global markets of copper, their distribution and demand and ways in which the government can influence the price, demand and supply of copper. The Main Economic Trends and Features of the World Copper Market During the Period 2007-11 The United States local production and use of copper has slightly gone high in 2011 to a figure of about 1.1 million tons raising its value to approximately $ 10 billion. Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona in the ascending order of production contribute over 99% of the local mine manufacture. Copper that was refined used about 30 mills of brass, 15 mills of rod and 500 foundries and sundry end users. Copper and its alloys were consumed in the building infrastructure where about 45% were used in electronic goods, 23 % consumed in the equipment of t ransport, 12 % consumed in general products similar to the consumer goods while the industrial ware used about 8% (Ho & Yi, 2008: 538). Between the years 2007-2011 the unproduced import sources from Chile was approximately 42 %, the Canadian was about 33 %, Peru amounted to 13% while Mexico had 6 % . The unwrought copper imports comprised of 83% of the refined copper. There has been an upward trend in the prices of refined copper in the second of half of 2010 with the ending year price according to London Metal exchange reaching a record high of $ 4.44 per every pound of copper (Botchway, 2011: 355). Even though the prices have been fluctuating considerably, the price of copper has remained over $ 4 per every pound throughout August 2011 with a record high price by LME going way up to $ 4.60 per pound in February 2011. In the month of September 2011, in reaction to the crisis regarding the impact on the demand of copper from the increasing debt in the European Union and the slowing development policies in the Chinese republic, the spot price fell acutely to about $ 3.16 per every pound in the course of week 1 which was the least since 2010 July (Gleich, Ayres & Go?Ssling-Reisemann, 2010: 121). The Factors Which Led To Change in the Demand for Copper during 2007-11 However, in September, the global copper research group predicted that the world’s refined demand of copper in 2011 would go beyond the production of refined copper by approximately 200,000 tons which would elongate the deficit production that occurred in 2010 as predicaments of operations and labor unrest inclusive of the strikes in Chile and Indonesia. This would continue to strain the global output of copper mine. The global demand, consumption and production of refined copper was estimated to go high by 1.5% and 2.3% by 2011 (ILOTTMMOTCM, 2008: 14). The production in the U.S mine went up abet in 2011 as restoration of mine restrain instigated at year end 2008 were majorly counterbalanced b y a less Ore Grades at a chief producer. The production at the electrolyte refinery went down due to closure of the refinery that was experienced in 2010 that eventually treated trade in anode and to less local output of smelter, the latter leading to a high degree of exports. The Copper mine production in the United States was projected to increase by over 100,000 tons in 2012, fundamentally because of the increasing refurbishment of cut downs. The local consumption of refined copper was close to unvaried in the year 2011 (Geological Survey, 2011: 21). Moreover the boom in the construction sector in China has also granted the consumers an insatiable