Copper theft

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https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/01/business/aurubis-copper-theft/index.html

Huge theft rocks Europe’s largest copper producer
By Olesya Dmitracova, CNN
Published 10:02 AM EDT, Fri September 1, 2023

Aurubis, Europe’s largest copper producer, says it has been the target of a huge theft, with damages running into hundreds of millions of euros.

“During a scheduled review of metal inventories, Aurubis has identified considerable discrepancies in target inventory,” the German company said Thursday in a statement. Aurubis claimed that “criminal activity” was behind the shortfall.

Aurubis produces about 1.1 million tonnes (1.2 million tons) of copper “cathodes,” or square sheets, per year at plants in Europe and the United States. The company accounts for around 30% of Europe’s production of such copper and 3% to 5% of global output, a spokesperson told CNN.

Why copper and lithium could be 'the new oil'
Copper is widely used in construction, including in electrical wires and water pipes. It is also a vital metal for energy transition as it is used in wind turbines, solar panels and electric cars.

The financial hit from the theft at Aurubis “might be in the low, three-digit-million-euro range,” the company said, warning that as a result it will not achieve the profit it has forecast for this fiscal year.

Shares of Aurubis plunged Friday, trading 12% lower by mid-afternoon in Europe.

The company has involved the State Office of Criminal Investigation in Hamburg, Germany, where Aurubis is based, the copper producer said. A spokesperson for the public prosecutor’s office in Hamburg told CNN on Friday that it had not yet received any information from local police or the criminal investigation office about the reported theft.

Aurubis has also opened investigations by internal and external experts to understand what happened and how its security could be improved.

This is not the first time the company has disclosed suspected theft. In June, Aurubis said it had identified “past criminal activities.” The public prosecutor’s office and police are investigating an “organized theft ring” targeting “intermediate products” that contain precious metals and which are the result of the company’s production processes.

— Nadine Schmidt contributed reporting.

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This company has a security issue. I suspect employees are involved,
as it would take an inside operation using forklifts and trucks to move
that much copper.

copper.png
 
At this dollar figure it seems like either:
A) senior management is totally incompetent and should all be fired
Or
B) some top-level accounting fraud and auditors who are either corrupt or incompetent.

This isn't a company that just happens to have some copper around, processing it is the core of their business.

It might be interesting to look at whether this company is involved in any options trading. Perhaps they were selling contracts they couldn't deliver on and now have to claim it was all stolen.
 
I was asked to look at a mysterious theft of three massive copper cable drums from the main utility company in Botswana. They were many tons each, a hand-span thick and would have required heavy equipment to move but none was used.

Didn't take long to realise they just cut the cables and passed them through the fence like sausage links.

In decades of using fenced but poorly patrolled depots, nobody had seen this, they believed the sheer size of the things was protection enough.

Of course it was Chinese mine workers came up with the idea.
 
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Europe's biggest copper producer is being investigated for conspiracy between employees + suppliers.
Russia was the biggest supplier of copper to Aurubis , before Ukraine war.
It figures CNn would leave that out. [Ar15.com, source]
 
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