RALEIGH METAL RECYCLING
METAL COMMODITIES AND RECYCLING REPORT
MAY 18TH, 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, May 18th, 2015. My name is
Greg Brown, President and CEO of the companies.
While
commodity prices remain mostly steady, prices remain low across the industry.
The S&P 500, the broad index on Wall Street, hit a new all-time high last
week. European stocks remain near their all-time
highs as well, meaning things are pretty good, but not for commodities, due to
weak manufacturing globally. Also, the
solid U.S economy causing the U.S. dollar to be strong, hurts commodity prices,
which are priced in U.S. dollars.
 |
| Steel Production - Raleigh Scrap Metal Recycling |
While
Ferrous production remains low and dropped a bit last week, a number of steel
mills and scrap yards announced closings.
The low production volumes, which are heavily caused by imports, led to AreclorMittal,
announcing the closing of their steel mill in South Carolina. This low volume brought other major announcements,
such as OmniSource closing some operations in the Southeast, ISA shutting their
shredder, SMS shutting operations in the Midwest and a small operation in PA
announced they were closing. This is
after Schnitzer announced 10 days ago they were closing two operations in the
SE.
When
we said last week we thought there would be some upcoming closings, we never
thought that in one week we would see so many announcements and we have never
seen this many announcements in about a week, ever.
 |
| US Oil Rig Count - Raleigh Copper Scrap Metal Prices |
With
oil drilling being a major consumer of steel, the only good news here is has
that the dramatic drop in oil rigs, drilling in the U.S. is slowing. They have been down for 23 weeks in a
row. While oil prices are still well
below those of a year ago, they are in fact up about 40% from the low of a few
months ago. This is slowing the
reduction in the oil rig count, but at 660 rigs, they are now down about 60%
from the high of 1,609 rigs last October.
 |
| Steel Prices - 2310 Garner Rd, Raleigh, NC, 27610 |
Ferrous
prices remained pretty steady after ferrous selling week two weeks ago. With production low at U.S. Mills and volumes
into scrap yards incredibly low, we see little chance that ferrous prices will
be down next month. If they rise, it
will not by a lot.
 |
| Copper Prices - NC Scrap Metal Recycling |
Copper
after rising almost steadily for a few months, seems to have hit a
stabilization point and now has spent its second week at just about $2.92 per
pound. With even more good economic news
out of Europe and two weeks ago, China adding some stimulus, it is clearly
helping support copper prices.
 |
| Aluminum Prices - (919) 828-5426 |
Aluminum
is a very different story. As said,
Steel and Copper have been steady.
Aluminum has dropped significantly.
The reason may be partly what caused the major steel declines. Imports.
There is word of major imports of aluminum coming in from China, so
despite volumes being good; prices are down significantly in recent weeks.
On
a positive note, congratulations to our friend Randy Goodman in taking a key
role with Greenland America to help them in their U.S. growth.
Copper
prices were up last week in our NC operations and Aluminum was down. Steel and Junk cars remained steady. Please call us at 919-828-5426 in Raleigh and
919-731-5600 in Goldsboro for prices.
With
that we hope all have a Safe and Profitable week. Tune in next week for the Commodity and Recycling
report.
