RALEIGH METAL RECYCLING
METAL COMMODITIES AND RECYCLING REPORT
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.
Due
to our travel schedule this is a special Friday Commodities report July 24th,
2015 instead of our normal Monday report.
My name is Greg Brown, President and CEO of the companies.
This
week may have been the worst week in the recycling industry since the crash of
2008.
 |
| Steel Production |
U.S. steel production ticked up a bit again last
week, which goes along with the continued slow increase in the U.S. economy. Steel
production in the U.S. is clearly off its low of a few months ago, but it
remains lower than last year due to the continued flood of imported finished steel
goods into the U.S.
 |
| Oil Rig Count |
The oil rig count which was falling for over six months has turned up a bit in
recent weeks, which is good news for steel consumption due to the large amount
of steel used in these rigs.
Now
the bad news. Scrap steel continues to come in from Europe and DRI, which is a substitute
for scrap metal, also continues to flow to steel mills, so scrap metal prices remain
weak. Importantly, they are now forecast
to fall to yet a new multiyear low early next month. Many scrap yards have lowered prices in
recent days due to this.
 |
| Steel Price |
This chart shows the current pricing of scrap
steel, but when this is updated in about two weeks, as said, it will hit a new
multi year low.
 |
| Copper |
Copper is just a bad. Copper hit a new 6+ year low today. China’s lack of growth is a huge drag on
copper prices.
 |
| Copper Inventory |
Related, copper inventories are close to a
new high for the year, so there is more than enough copper in the market to
keep prices down. There is no good news
for copper prices.
 |
| Aluminum |
Aluminum, which also hit new lows two weeks
ago, hit new lows yet again in recent days.
China remains shipping Aluminum to the U.S. as their markets slow.
Gold
also hit multi year lows this week. Gold
which was over $1,900 an ounce number years ago, hit a 5 year low this week and
is under $1,100 today. In summary key
drivers for falling commodity prices are China’s slow down and since the U.S. economy
is doing OK, the U.S. dollar remains strong, meaning commodities which are priced
in dollars are going down.
As
for industry news, Steel Dynamics which owns OmniSource released earnings this
week that showed while OmniSource made money last quarter it was down significantly
from last year. Nucor Steel also
released earnings, but they did not say how their recycling group did vs. last
year.
On
the positive side, unemployment claims in the U.S. literally hit a 40 year low
last week, meaning job growth is good in the U.S., but many of the new jobs are
low wage jobs, which is not good for commodities.
On
a sad story, Loeb Lorman Metals in Wisconsin has filed for receivership and is
up for sale, after about 100 years in business.
With market conditions deteriorating weekly, we know there will be more
of this to come.
For
current prices, please call us at 919-828-5426 in Raleigh, 919-731-5600 in
Goldsboro.
With
that we hope all have a Safe and Profitable week. Tune in next week for the Commodity and Recycling
report.
This chart of the last 25 years shows that other than one month spike downs in 2008 and 2005, scrap steel prices are the lowest since 2003, 12 years ago.Even more staggering is that scrap steel prices are within about $10/GT, which is about $.50/hundred pounds, of what they were in 1993, a full 22 years ago.While there were various reasons why three scrap metal yards that we know of closed last week, low prices clearly contributed to their closings. It is hard to believe, so I will repeat it. Scrap steel prices are near the price that they were in 1993, 22 years ago.
This 5 year copper chart shows they have been in a tight range for the past 90 days, which is surely better than the 5 years of falling prices.
This 5 year aluminum inventory chart continues telling the same story. Aluminum inventories have been falling for about 18 months, which could bring higher prices in the months to come.
As for positive news on the global economy, European car sales were up almost 10% last month, over September 2014, which was the 25th month in a row of increased car sales in Europe.
China released new GDP data last night. Their economy continues to slow. The chart looks incredibly like the last part of the chart we showed a couple of minutes ago of scrap steel prices, meaning as the Chinese economy goes, as goes the price of scrap steel.On a positive, Walmart announced that last April they gave major raises so are paying a minimum of $9.00/hr. and in February they will raise that to $10/hour.This will cost the company an extra $2.7 B this year and next, but will give many of the 1.4 M people Walmart employs in the U.S., more money to spend, which will help the economy.With that we hope all have a Safe and Profitable week. Tune in next week for the Scrap Metal & Commodity Recycling report. This is Greg Brown
