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The pork cycle is to economics what the law of gravity is to physics. You can count on it. Every single time. The only thing that makes economics the trickier science, is timing. Because you never know when the market hits peak or bottom. But economics is not an exact science. Investors don't need to get the cycle exactly right to make money. About right cuts it.
The key to understanding the broad commodity cycle, which functions just like the pork cycle, is the time lag between the investment decision and the creation of new supply. What would happen in case there wouldn't be a time lag? An uptick in demand causes a price increase. The price increase causes additional investment. And the surplus demand would immediately be filled by new supply. Same thing on the downside: demand drops, price drops, investment falls, and production would be cut instantaneously. Our hypothetical result: steady prices.
Of course, reality is different. Breeding the hog takes time. When the price of oil or copper rises, companies can probably squeeze out some extra output. But to substantially increase production to fill the new demand, they need to increase exploration budgets. That means hiring new geologists, given that companies probably fired those when prices were low - if they are still around. The geologists need time to search for the treasure. When they find something, engineers need time to figure out how to drill the well or build the mine. Permits need to be arranged. The company might also need to raise capital. And only then, construction would commence.
By the time the whole new enterprise is up and running, demand starts to drop. Due to the price mechanism, users increased efficiency or switched to substitutes. Or a recession hits. At that point, the commodity producers will be holding the bag. And anyone who invested in commodities lately will know exactly what that means.
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Our current cycle started in December 2001, when China joined [12] the WTO. That event marked the beginning of the greatest commodity boom the world ever witnessed. The hungry Chinese giant craved commodities. Commodity producers were throwing everything at it, but it never seemed saturated. Then the global financial crisis hit in 2008. After a commodity collapse, prices bounced quickly and forcefully. This strengthened the China hypothesis even further. We were now in a new era.
Except we were not, of course. Multi-billion dollar mines with long lead times came online just as China started slowing down. The law of gravity took commodity prices down to levels not seen since 1974. Continuing our science metaphor, we are witnessing Newton's Third Law applied to economics: the large upward force caused a force equal in magnitude, but opposite in direction. After the Great Boom, we're now in the Great Collapse.
There even seems to be another new paradigm, which is sort of the mirror image of the boom: China switches its economy from industry to services. With the flip of a switch, every factory worker becomes an app developer. Nobody needs stuff anymore, as everything is now 'in the cloud'. China's pace of growth will continue to fall. Commodity prices will extend their tailspin.
Well, maybe the pundits are right. We don't have a crystal ball. But just allow us to add some balancing facts to the China discussion. China is ramping up government spending, just as it did after the financial crisis.
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It has also just opened a whole new local government bond market:
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We're not sure how this will end, but the business cycle is also a cycle. China has been slowing down for four years already. No matter what, these measures will provide additional Chinese demand.
Now, more importantly, back to the commodity supply side. The table below shows an extract from a recent Americas Metals & Mining report by Deutsche Bank. Commodity producers are cutting their CAPEX in a huge way. Globally, we see the same picture across the board. That's your pork cycle at work right there. We are once again setting ourselves up for future commodity shortages.
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What will cause commodity prices to turn? Well, increased demand and reduced supply of course - nothing new here. But the specifics will be hard to predict. For example, in 2011, nobody was yet aware of fracking. We now know this new technology turned the oil market upside down. There will probably again be some factor we're currently not expecting. An example could be rapidly accelerating growth in India, which is now where China was decades ago. China has 1.36 billion inhabitants. India has 1.25 billion.
It's just a guess. But the commodity cycle will turn. We will know what made it turn only after the fact. But that's not even relevant to you as a shrewd investor. The only thing that matters is that you need to act now if you're serious about making serious money. And gradually expand your exposure to commodities. As the legendary trader Stan Druckenmiller noted [13]:
"The first thing I heard when I got in the business....was bulls make money, bears make money, and pigs get slaughtered. I'm here to tell you I was a pig. And I strongly believe the only way to make long-term returns in our business that are superior is by being a pig."
Secular Investor offers a fresh look at investing. We analyze long lasting cycles, coupled with a collection of strategic investments and concrete tips for different types of assets. The methods and strategies are transformed into the Gold & Silver Report [14] and the Commodity Report [15].
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