Monday, May 18, 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
May 18th, 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, May18th, 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.


commodities and recycling report
Steel Production - Wilson 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.

commodities and recycling report
US Oil Rig Count - Wilson 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.

commodities and recycling report
Steel Prices - 404 Maury St. S., wilson, NC, 27893


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.

commodities and recycling report
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.

commodities and recycling report
Aluminum Prices - (252) 243-3586


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.