Metal Commodities and Recycling Report
Goldsboro Metal Recycling
We Buy Junk Cars For More Cash
801 N. John St.
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, Goldsboro
Metal Recycling, the leaders in North Carolina for Scrap Metal, Cardboard,
Electronics and Junk Cars.
Today
is Monday August 10th, 2015. My name is
Greg Brown, President and CEO of the companies.
Sadly
the story remains the same. There is mostly bad news in the commodities and
recycling markets, with only limited positives.
 |
| Steel Production |
 |
| Oil Rig Count |
Two of the things that are helping steel
production is that the oil rig count is up slightly, despite falling oil prices
and car production is strong.
 |
| Steel Prices |
With the U.S. dollar remaining strong, the
story has not changed in that metal prices remain low. When the attached chart is updated next week,
it will show a drop of about $30/GT, making it the lowest price in over 6
years.
Related,
the utilization rate at steel mills in the U.S. is now about 74%, yet it was
79% a year ago. The flood of scrap metal
into the U.S. from Europe, the manufacturing of low cost DRI, along with low
steel production, remain the key reasons steel prices continue to fall.
 |
| Copper |
Copper hit an important milestone last week. Copper’s all time high was $4.66 a pound in
April 2011. Last week, it went below
$2.33, meaning it is now trading at less than half its high of 2011. Most believe that copper could go as low as
$2.10 or lower, before is stabilizes.
 |
| Aluminum |
Aluminum also hit a 6 plus year low in the past week. The slow economy and over production of
aluminum in China, is a key factor in low aluminum prices.
The
U.S. economy continues its slow improvement.
There was a good jobs report last week that had over 200,000 jobs
created in July. Car and truck sales may
hit the highest level since 2001 and the oil price decline will help spending
around the world, but none of it is enough to help commodity prices.
On
a bad note, Federal Charges were brought against a major recycler in North
Carolina this past week, due to banking issues.
We are aware of yet another North Carolina recycler that is also
currently involved with at least one lawsuit that could lead to charges as
well. Recycling is an important industry
and markets are worse than bad, but all laws must be respected and followed. Integrity is key to all we do.
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.
