Metal Commodities and Recycling Report, Raleigh Scrap Metal Recycling, 2310 Garner Rd, Raleigh, NC, 27610, 919-828-5426

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. 

Today is Monday, July 6th, 2015. My name is Greg Brown, President and CEO of the companies.

There was a lot of news last week, but only yesterday and this morning there was major news that led to changes in commodities and recycling. The bad news yesterday and this morning is that the Greek debt issue is far from being resolved, especially with the Greek people turning down an offer from the EU yesterday. It is not clear what effect this will have on the global economy, but things are not good.

Steel Production

On the positive side, steel production came down a bit last week, but overall it has been coming up slowly for months. Schnitzer Steel released lower earnings last week despite slightly higher steel shipments. Lower earnings in their recycling division as well as other all other divisions hurt the company.

Oil Rig Count

Importantly there was a lot of good news last week. The oil rig count rose for the first time in 29 weeks. Oil rigs use major amounts of steel. June auto sales were the highest for any June in 10 years. Pending home sales ending May hit a nine year high and the jobs report had unemployment hit 5.3% which was the lowest in over 9 years. The downside is wage growth remains weak. Together these are some of the reasons we are seeing a slow increase in steel production.

Heavy Melt Price

As for Ferrous pricing, despite increases in steel production we are hearing that multiple steel companies have barges of scrap metal arriving this month from Europe could cause a dampening of scrap metal prices this month. There were some lower priced ferrous sales last week and the rest will be traded in the next few days. There is still a possibility of no decrease in some markets and even a small increase in that especially in the SE there remains a scrap metal shortage.

Importantly, steel mills did not cancel orders in the SE last week, which would have happened if there was a major decrease in prices coming. They did not cancel orders due to steel mills needed scrap metal flowing into their operations, before and after the holiday weekend.

Copper Prices

Copper prices were steady last week for the third week in a row, yet in the past few hours prices dropped to an almost 6+ year low. China’s economy which is a key for copper prices remains in flux with its stock market having fallen over 20% in recent weeks. Due to the major stock market drop, effective today, the Chinese government has authorized a massive buying of stocks by brokers to try and stabilize stock prices.

Aluminum

Aluminum is pretty much the same as copper in that it too has not seen any real change in recent weeks until today.

Overall there while there was some very positive news, mixed with very negative Greek news, prices and volumes in recycling remain very, very depressed. There is word of more scrap metal operations closing in parts of the industry. The SE part of the U.S. continues to see larger volume drop offs vs. other parts of the U.S., due to dramatically lower retail peddler traffic. Only the strong and diversified will make it through this tough time as well as those that have partnered with stronger operations.

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.