RALEIGH METAL RECYCLING
METAL COMMODITIES AND RECYCLING REPORT
APRIL 13TH, 2015
2310 GARNER ROAD
RALEIGH, NC, 27610
This
is the Commodities and Recycling report, brought to you by BENLEE the industry
leader in roll off trailers and open top scrap trailers, as well as Raleigh and
Goldsboro Metal Recycling, the leaders in North Carolina for Scrap Metal,
Cardboard, Electronics and Junk Cars.
Today
is Monday, April 13th, 2015.
My name is Greg Brown, President and CEO of the companies.
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| AMM - Scrap Metal Prices Graph |
Last
week was ferrous trading week. It was
uneventful in that there was little change anywhere. In talking to people, most prices were
sideways, with a few people saying prices were slightly up and others said slightly
down. We heard in the Midwest, there
were some people struggling to sell all their material.
 |
| AMM - Steel Production Graph |
Steel
production in the U.S. remains terribly depressed as it has been for the past
two months and hit a new multi-year low last week. With the U.S. dollar continuing to be very
strong vs. the Euro and with little growth in the European economy, there is
little to reduce the flow of European scrap and European steel finished goods from
coming to the U.S. Also, if last week’s
announcement of a political deal with Iran turns into a real deal, it means
Iran will be able to bring more oil to the market which will keep pressure on
oil prices. That will further hurt U.S.
drilling rates, which will hurt steel production, and therefore hurt scrap
steel prices.
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| Baker Hughes - US Oil Rig Count Graph |
As
for steel used in oil drilling rigs, oil prices remained low last week. U.S. crude inventories reported their largest
weekly increase in 14 years, making this the 13th week in a row of
increases. U.S. gasoline stock levels hit
their highest seasonally adjusted level since record keeping began. This will help consumer spending with lower
oil prices, but is hurting steel prices with lack of demand for drilling. The
lower prices continue to cause the oil drilling rig count to decline, which is
now down a huge 53% since hitting its high in October of 2014.
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| CME Group - Copper Prices Graph |
Copper
held its own last week and had little change, with no global economic news to
make anything happen.
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| Kitco - Aluminum Prices Graph |
Aluminum
prices declined slightly for the week and are near multi-year lows. On the positive side, Alcoa released their
earnings and said that aluminum for commercial trucks was a major growth market
for aluminum. Related, last week there
were also reports of Chrysler and GM following Ford with adding major amounts
of aluminum to their vehicles to get more weight out of their vehicles to get
higher gas mileage.
There
were no changes in our copper prices in North Carolina last week, with our
Raleigh prices of #1 copper being purchased for $2.36 per pound. Prepared Steel is still being purchased for
$6.25 per hundred pounds.
Lastly,
if you are still on the fence and have not decided to go to Vancouver Canada
next week for the annual ISRI meeting, book your flights and come. It is the only place where in one day you can
meet executives from every equipment and service company for the industry. It is also a great place to network. Related, we will be on a panel discussing metal
theft from scrap yards, which remains a major problem in the industry.
With
that we hope all have a Safe and Profitable week. Tune in next week for the Commodity and Recycling
report.
