Monday, April 13, 2015

Metal Commodities and Recycling Report, Wilson Metal Recycling, 404 Maury St S, Wilson, NC, 27893, 252-243-3586

Wilson Metal Recycling Metal Commodities and Recycling Report
April 13th, 2015
404 Maury St S
Wilson, NC, 27893
252-243-3586


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.

commodities recycling report
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. 

commodities recycling report
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.

commodities recycling report
Baker Hughes - US Oil Rig Count Prices


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. 

commodities recycling report
CME Group  - Copper Prices Graph


Copper held its own last week and had little change, with no global economic news to make anything happen. 

commodities recycling report
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.