Slump in industrial raw materials hits home

London

WHILE attention has been focused on oil, the realisation is hitting home that there has been a major slump in industrial commodities since their bubble peaks during the past four years.

Most industrial commodity prices peaked in 2011 following a wave of so-called investment but, in reality, were speculative purchases by investment banks, commodity specialist hedge and exchange traded funds.

The backdrop of the surge in prices was the second wave of quantitative easing (QE) on the part of the US Federal Reserve Board following the first boost in liquidity during the financial crash of 2008 to early 2009.

According to traders, gold, silver platinum and other commodities became fashionable on expectation that major infrastructure and real-e…