LONDON - Prices of precious metals are soaring, sparking fears of even tighter margins at electronics manufacturers hesitant to pass along charges to customers.

Prices of gold, silver, platinum and copper have approached or passed multi-year highs of late. Analysts cite unprecedented demand for certain materials coupled with large-scale swap by investors away from oil and into metals.
Copper prices have blown by previous record highs. Demand in China plus unfettered housing starts and remodeling are eating up capacity for copper, which is common in piping and other building supplies such as electrical wiring.

Gold prices neared a 23-year high of $506 per ounce last week.  Aluminum, zinc and lead are also seeing demand unlike in recent years.

While pricing for certain metals has been been surging for some time (Circuits Assembly reported on this last Spring), investors of late have upped the ante, as oil prices have fallen 20% since August.

Among the high rollers:

• Silver hit an 18-year high of $8.62 per ounce.
• Copper prices reached $4,435 per ton on Friday, a record.
• Aluminum reached $2,213 per ton, a 16-year high.
• Zinc was at $1,776.50 per ton, its highest level in 15 years.
  
• Lead was at $1,068 per ton, its highest point since 1980.
• Platinum, used heavily in cars, reached a 25-year high of $1,004 per ounce last week, and is up 19% this year.
  

Analysts are saying that commodity materials could sustain their pricing for years, even decades, because of the lengthy time it takes to locate and establish new mines.