High Zinc Prices Impacting Buyers Across the Board

The Wall Street Journal reported that as the price of zinc continues to rise, investors are rushing to purchase shares of companies that are focused on the metal.

However, another effect is that the US Mint is having to reduce its manufacturing costs to offset the price of the base metal, which is used in pennies. Meanwhile, steelmakers, which purchase about half the world’s zinc, have been forced to simply pay higher prices for zinc.

As quoted in the market news:

The U.S. Mint lost $55 million producing pennies in 2013, when the coin cost 1.83 cents to manufacture. This year a penny is expected to cost only 1.6 cents because of savings elsewhere in the process, a spokesman said.

The value of the metal contained in a penny is climbing. At today’s prices, the zinc in each penny costs 0.58 cents, from 0.47 cents last year and 0.26 cents a decade ago.

‘No alternative metal compound would lower the cost of the penny [to less than one cent], we just don’t think it can be done,’ said Tom Jurkowsky, a spokesman for U.S. Mint, adding that the Mint had studied cheaper materials like steel but encountered problems with higher manufacturing costs.

Click here to read the full report from The Wall Street Journal.