/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>57449774
>it tends to oscillate about gold,
I will run some correlation data this week. I do see something there comparing hot rolled coil to gold spot, especially more recently. Covid messes with a lot of data too, sometimes I wonder if I pulled 2020-2021 out if I'd get better info.

>>57450542
The bit of research I've done on it the cost of shipping is the least expensive by water, then rail, then trucking. And it's significant differences. That's why a lot of pipe yards and stuff are built on rivers or at least have rail access. I think one factor rail is weakening is probably the cost of fuel. We have just incredibly cheap fuel prices in America. I remember people going nuts in like 2008 or so about fuel prices being 5 dollar a gallon average (oil got up to 150/b I think), and if you think about it now we never actually got back to that peak - especially when we adjust for inflation. I mean in order to get back to that peak it would need to be like 7-8 bucks/gallon AVERAGE. I think the cheap fuel has just made us that much more reliant on trucking. The rail system also is probably slower and that contributes. I've also noticed we focus less on rail access these days, like factories always used to be near railroads and now I see a lot of industrial areas with no rail access.

Maybe Buffett and Gates are betting that eventually fuel prices will spike back up and we'll seek cheaper shipping methods. I mean right now shipping has gone absolutely nuts, I think I spent 60 bucks shipping Christmas gifts this year. Not saying that would go by rail but really makes me think that at some point we might say we'll take a slower method of travel for less cost.