Germany: Copper Theft Hits Critical Infrastructure, Business

Economic Development to Drive Up Copper Prices
Berlenbach thinks that a main driver of future copper prices will be the economic development in emerging countries like China and India where rising standards of living will lead to “more cars being driven, more air conditioning systems being installed and more houses with better electrical wiring being constructed.”

The ERI CEO said humans have mined 700 million tons of copper in total so far. “We will need about the same amount of copper in the next 30 years,” he added, basing his assumption on calculations done at his company.

At the same time, it’s becoming “increasingly difficult to explore and mine copper deposits,” he said, noting that those are mainly to be found in countries with high geopolitical risk such as Chile and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)), where companies will only invest “if it’s economically worthwhile.”

Where Has All the Stolen Copper Gone?
The Aurubis copper fraud took place in the realm of financial bookkeeping which made it possible for the criminals to remain undisclosed for a long time. After all, selling stolen copper on the hugely regulated European recycling market isn’t easy, says Ralf Schmitz from the Association of German Metal Traders and Recyclers (VDM).

Every deal or delivery has to be recorded, he told the German daily Tagesspiegel recently, adding: “What gets stolen is known to the traders. This also applies to our eastern neighbor Poland which has a similar system.”

Schmitz suspects that metal thieves mainly sell their contraband outside of Germany because open borders facilitate illegal shipments. Or even further afar: “The bulk of the stolen metals is no longer sold in Europe. Most of the material, in my theory, goes overseas in containers.”

‘No Substitute for Copper’
As the prices of copper and other metals rise, criminals are becoming better organized and more ruthless. Police investigating the Aurubis theft have seized firearms and ammunition alongside more than €200,000 ($212,000) in cash and several cars.

ERI CEO Berlenbach said when he hears about copper thefts in Germany he often is reminded about his time in South Africa, where he once worked. “The problem of copper theft was similarly dramatic in South Africa. At one time, all the telephone lines in my neighborhood in Johannesburg were ripped out. It must have been a well-organized gang with contacts to professional buyers.”

And yet, Berlenbach can’t think of any effective method to protect critical infrastructures like railways and electrical grids from metal theft. “Unfortunately, there is no substitute for copper cables, it’s a matter of physics.”

Dirk Kaufmann is a DW journalist. This article is published courtesy of Deutsche Welle (DW).