Table [ ]: Source: Hyde
If we estimate the average monthly refined copper production based on the and assume that the whole decline in copper use arose from the decline in shipments, the later in November 1929 compared to October amounted to around 30% while the whole use of copper in the production of electric products constituted only 22.5%, according to Hyde. It may thus be claimed that the November 1929 decline in refined copper shipments may have been part of some broader economy-wide decline rather than primarily a symptom of a cluster of troubled industrial electrification projects.
It should be noted, however, that all the uses listed by Hyde add up only to 67.6%, and it is unclear what other uses at the time could have consumed the remaining 33.4%. This suggests that Hyde’s data may underestimate the share of some uses. In addition to this, November and December 1929 saw a dramatic reduction in automobile production which will be considered in more detail in section [ ]. The average monthly automobile production in these months was around 2.45 times lower than in October.