Copper theft: A growing economic problem
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2026
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Demand has been surging for copper around the world - from renewable energy projects, to AI data centres, to infrastructure networks.
Production, however, has struggled to keep pace, pushing prices close to record highs in late 2025 and early 2026.
As the value of the metal has risen, criminals have increasingly targeted copper for theft - stripping it from telephone cables, railway power lines and solar panels. The resulting damage and disruption is costing economies billions.
If you'd like to get in touch with the team, our email address is businessdaily@bbc.co.uk
Presented and produced by Russell Padmore
Picture: Train passengers look at a train information board at Zwolle station in Zwolle on the first of December 2025 after an extensive track damage caused by an attempted copper theft disrupted train services. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.3 | The price of copper has surge, making the metal a target for criminals across the world. |
| 0:13.4 | Hello, I'm Russell Padmore, with Business Daily on the BBC World Service, |
| 0:18.0 | examining how the theft of copper is disrupting businesses from telecoms to railways |
| 0:23.6 | and mining. It's costing economies billions as incidents of the crime increase. |
| 0:28.8 | People propping ladders up against the pole and climbing up and using hacksaws and bolt cutters |
| 0:33.8 | to get a stretch of wire. They'll pretend to be repair crews. |
| 0:39.8 | In Chile, organized crime gangs are attacking trains transporting copper or raiding warehouses in ports. |
| 0:46.8 | There's an increase in organized crime and common crime, not only in Chile, but throughout |
| 0:51.7 | the hemisphere, where there are profits through the theft of resources, |
| 0:57.9 | there are criminal gangs. |
| 0:59.1 | Many countries are pressing buyers of scrap metal to check the seller of copper is legitimate. |
| 1:04.3 | I'll visit a recycling operation in Ireland. |
| 1:07.0 | First thing we do is we take their ID, verify that, their name address, the reds of their vehicle. |
| 1:11.9 | So then we've got a log of basically all they've brought in, what date they brought it in, the vehicle they were driving. |
| 1:16.7 | The global battles to prevent the theft of copper. |
| 1:19.5 | Coming up on Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 1:26.3 | Traders at the London Metals Exchange shouting buy and sell orders in the market's ring. |
| 1:32.0 | It seems like chaos, but they're well-burst in how the price of copper has surged to record levels. |
| 1:37.8 | In 2025, the LME's benchmark contract for the metal rose more than 40%, as the commodity traded at about $12,000 a ton, |
| 1:47.8 | its biggest annual rise in a decade. |
| 1:50.7 | Manufacturers have driven demand for copper to use in batteries for electric cars, solar panels, |
... |
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