Forget Captain Jack Sparrow At World’s End. (The box office certainly has.) Instead, worry about pirates pillaging equipment, siding, and other metal-based materials from your plants and facilities.

New reports find that the black market is bullish for scrap metal. A 95% boost in prices over the past two years for copper, aluminum, lead, tin, and zinc, is driving a resurgance of metals theft. Prices for second-hand scrap metals, such as copper, have jumped 260% over the past year.

The price boost has sparked a surge in metals thefts from businesses. A recent Fortune Magazine article reports that new-age metals pirates are snatching everything from more than $3 million of copper wiring from Verizon and AT&T to hundreds of stainless-steel kegs from Anheuser-Busch.

According to the article this bull black market could run for years: “Unlike previous metal-theft booms, this one is being driven not just by prices of the raw materials themselves but also by an unprecedented surge in global demand for scrap metal.”

These findings corroborate earlier predictions reported here from the Industry Cost Escalation (ICE) Alert from Thinking Cap Solutions warning buyers to watch for rising prices for products that include carbon black (up nearly 14% from year-ago levels), steel wire (up 11.77%), fabricated metal pipe and fittings (up 10.68%) and ion and steel pipe and tubes (up 10.66%). The increases reflect how much prices must be raised if manufacturers are to achieve the same level of margins that were held a year ago.

Demand for scrap metal is being driven by developing countries like China, India, and Russia, which now consume more metals than they can produce. (Interesting side note, Fortune reports that scrap metal is now the second-largest U.S. export to China. Maybe the U.S. has a future as the Sanford & Son to the world.)

The findings signal three warnings to supply managers:

1. Add larceny to your growing list of supply risk concerns. Be sure to work with your logistics department, carriers, and suppliers to step up security for previously unprotected metals supplies.
2. Double-check the source of supply. Ensure that you’re not bolstering the black market by buying “hot” (as in stolen) metals. Stolen scrap could also introduce questionable materials integrity resulting in poor quality goods.
3. Step up your recycling efforts. With metals prices rising and supply getting tight, recycling is fast becoming a key strategy for holding down costs and mitigating risks. (It also have benefits for the environment.) Hey, reclaiming precious metals from yesterday’s junk has been a boon for Hewlett-Packard and others. It should be a growth industry.

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