To lock in low long-term power costs, Higgins scavenged carrion from the meltdown: power plants built by electricity producers when prices were high.
In theory, global trade should cause prices in different countries to converge: the prices of low-cost producers should gradually increase as wages rise (ie, China's falling prices were a temporary anomaly), while the prices of high-cost producers should fall.
ECONOMIST: Why China is not to blame for the surge in global inflation
And the mere threat of action is often enough to spur foreign producers to raise prices or curtail sales.
New competitors were still entering the market as late as 2011, when weak demand and a supply glut forced producers to slash prices.
For example, according to BCA Research, a firm of economic analysts, the prices of Chinese exports of electric motors and generators doubled over the past five years, yet because they remain much cheaper than American-produced products, their share of the American market has more than doubled, forcing local producers to cut prices.
ECONOMIST: Why China is not to blame for the surge in global inflation
And instead of trying to prop up prices using intervention schemes, as Brazil and other coffee producers have been doing recently, low prices should be seen as an ally: eventually they will drive out inefficient producers elsewhere, and Brazil will be able to increase its earnings through greater volumes.
The lower prices that producers are receiving for aluminum is already affecting output in China, analysts said.
FORBES: Some Aluminum Production Dips Below Costs; Output Cuts Likely If Condition Persists
"The prices that producers get don't depend on quality, it depends on whatever can be screwed out of them by the multinational companies, " she says.
Sokalsky said share prices of producers have lagged the price of gold itself in recent years, with investors dissatisfied with capital-allocation decisions throughout the industry.
FORBES: Barrick Gold Reports 4Q Net Loss; CEO Pledges Disciplined Spending
As previously reported on this blog, low costs production of PV panels from Chinese producers helped drive down prices over 24 percent over the last year.
China has said that shale-gas pricing will be market-based, which is vague but suggests that producers can charge higher prices than the state-controlled system currently allows.
What Ramsey proved is that the most economically efficient way to set prices when producers have high fixed costs and low marginal costs is (roughly) to soak the rich.
But then few have such concentrated suppliers as platinum, palladium and nickel - and Opec has been aware of its special power to influence the markets ever since 1973, when producers quadrupled world oil prices almost overnight.
It could have signed up to Fairtrade, an international social movement that promotes the payment of above-market prices to producers of agricultural commodities in developing countries by setting a floor price, with an additional premium that goes to farmers for reinvestment and social projects.
ECONOMIST: Cadbury hopes to secure its cocoa supply with a new scheme
Admittedly natural gas prices are significantly depressed today, but they could rise to very profitable levels for producers and still be well below gasoline prices.
In effect, anti-dumping measures encourage domestic and foreign producers to collude to raise prices.
Since 2003 China's appetite for steel, for its fast-expanding economy, has pushed up prices and swelled producers' coffers.
If they're able to force producers to offer goods at prices below the prevailing market rate, shortages become inevitable.
However, he says producers might have to raise prices later this year if the peso strengthens because of the inflow of reconstruction money.
ECONOMIST: A propaganda war over earthquake damage to wineries
Frac spreads, or the value of NGLs over dry natgas, are expected to stay elevated and keep many producers profitable despite weak natgas prices.
FORBES: 2012 Outlook: Natural Gas Prices Likely To Remain Under Pressure, For Now
Alberta's oil and gas producers are basking in higher prices.
The rationale: If companies are seeing demand for manufactured goods, those goods should be making their way to customers, and share prices of both producers and shippers should see support.
At a point, if prices rise enough that producers believe they can get more future profits, they will extract more.
Oil producers have also tried to keep prices within relatively reasonable levels, simply because demand will fall if prices get too high.
As a result, pork prices received by Mexican producers dropped 56 percent.
FORBES: Holiday Reading: My Five Favorite MEXICO Stories of 2012
There is currently a glut on the market because producers, spurred by high feed prices, rushed to liquidate hogs at the end of the summer.
For agricultural companies and food producers, however, rising commodity prices can be a blessing or a curse, depending on where the company is in the food-processing chain.
FORBES: Four Legendary Investor-Inspired Stocks To Play The Food Price Surge
The immediate land leasing rush is over, and producers are already responding to market prices and moving rigs south and west to the more lucrative oil shales in Louisiana, Texas, Ohio, and elsewhere.
FORBES: Driven by Oil Shale Economics, Natural Gas Prices Primed for Slow and Steady Rise
应用推荐