Welcome to Lord Copper

Opinions about lots of things - mostly related to the worlds' metal markets

Tinxit Brexit

17 October 2018

I find the interminable Brexit negotiations keep reminding me of the Tin Crisis in 1985, when the International Tin Council defaulted sending shock waves not only in the world of metal trading but throughout the City. Anyone involved in the five years of frustrating negotiations between the ITC and its creditors may be irritated by the present Brexit negotiations, but would not be surprised.

Endgame - Chapter Five

12 October 2018

The deal worked without a hitch. Trucks rolled in to car plants, consumer goods factories, extrusion works and the rest, all across the country. The split of the profit between the two parties was satisfying to both sides, and when Max Eisenstadt tried to get more quantities, out it came, a bit here, a bit there, but totalling all in quite a lot of tonnage above the original plan. Eisenstadt - untypically - didn’t ask himself how more could keep appearing; he and his team were kept busy staying on top of their side of it.

Endgame - Chapter Four

11 October 2018

A day later, the deal was agreed. Metal-Exx had agreed to take a quantity of aluminium metal from Arctic Mining in the US - it was an open agreement, to facilitate optional further purchases - to be lifted from a couple of sites in the South-West of the country. Serck and Puschkin, once having agreed the principles of the deal, and one particular detail they felt should remain just between the two of them, had left the specific negotiation to their executives.

Endgame - Chapter Three

10 October 2018

Obviously, however important Puschkin may have thought himself, Serck couldn’t simply accept the Russian’s schedule. Vassiliev had in the end persuaded him that meeting the oligarch could be worth his while, though, and so two weeks later the Leopard-Star Gulfstream flew him in to Geneva.

Endgame - Chapter Two

09 October 2018

Across the other side of the Atlantic, in the Geneva headquarters of Metal-Exx, Max Eisenstadt was metaphorically scratching his head over the same issue. Long-time aluminium trader, CEO of Metal-Exx since Serck had taken it over, Eisenstadt had seen pretty much everything in his long career.

Endgame - Chapter One

08 October 2018

Jason Serck stared at the face looking back at him from the bathroom mirror. There was no running away from it; he was getting older, looking more tired and lined. He may be a multi-billionaire hedge fund king, but nothing could hold back the passing of time. Recent months had been tough.

A Minor Metal Merchant's Diary

03 October 2018

As it now appears UK is heading for the Cuban option - a small island state next to a great trading continent who is bent on tarring and feathering it – our small company is beginning to think we might need to do something. But what? Bring over six months of stock for our regular UK customers? Form a Dutch company? Do we really have to?