Hedge funds are not the only ones that have been burned by their activities in commodity markets recently. This week a man was admitted to hospital in northern England after being electrocuted cutting through a live wire carrying 11,000 volts trying to steal the copper it contained.
Thefts of copper cables and rods are increasing as tightness in the physical copper markets has caused prices to rebound.
“This year we’ve seen a massive increase in theft from our sub-station sites,” says Phil Wilson, customer operations manager for one of Eon’s regional electricity distribution networks in the UK, which suffered 37 incidents in Coventry in the past week alone.