Metal-forming technologies are used to shape hard industrial metals like steel, iron and aluminum into the components that are needed to make everything from computers and iPads to cars and trucks.
The selloff in commodities hit the precious metals hard this week, with oil and silver dropping substantially.
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But it is incredibly hard to value raw metals, Mr Goodhart argued, so the cost of using them in trade is high.
The outlook for industrial metals is hard to call since it may hinge on whether European leaders are able to resolve the debt situation to the satisfaction of financial markets.
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People are using the dollar as a safe haven, and if that is undermined, they will switch to metals and other hard assets.
The prices for industrial metals were hit particularly hard in the week ended July 24.
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Like the 1970s, Tillman sees this decade as one in which financial assets become less valuable than hard assets such as real estate, metals, raw materials and even collectibles.
Workers in apparel, rubber, plastics, furniture, primary metals and transportation equipment are especially hard hit by oil price increases.
It becomes very hard to reverse this process and lock the metals up again, although it can be done.
Joel Smolen, hedge fund manager at Axion Capital in San Rafael, says hard assets like gold, silver and equities of mining and metals companies in countries like Australia and Brazil are the places to be following the U.S. credit downgrade.
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Rare earth metals are a key component of products such as MRI scanners and computer hard drives.
Metals producers like Silver Wheaton, Newmont Mning and Barrick Gold sold off hard on Wednesday, too.
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Also on 15 November, Russian President Boris Yeltsin took control of the production and distribution of -- and the hard currency revenues associated with -- oil, diamonds, gold and other precious metals on Russian territory .
Exporters of metals and chemicals should gain immediately, but the longer-term benefits of membership are hard to explain to a population that tends not to look far ahead.
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