Blog

Happy New Year!

I trust that we have all enjoyed some festive time over the past few weeks. 

We certainly have enjoyed our time off the regular schedule – though both my wife and I are looking forward to January 7th….  back to school day!!

Looking back at the year, from a scrappers lens, we have enjoyed some ups and down.  On the ups side, ferrous scrap streams, have for the most part, been relatively stable and year over year stronger.  However, from the non-ferrous side, we have seen a major pull back in pricing in Copper, Aluminum, Lead and Stainless prices.

As discussed in my previous e-mail in late November, the trend in stainless scrap is still on a negative trend.  As noted in this AMM article, stainless steel scrap tags continue to falter.  Although nickel prices seem to have their floor, what the consumers are telling me now is that the spread on the price for nickel units is widening.  In scrapper talk, earlier in the year, the mills were giving us a rate of 80% a nickel unit, we are moving towards a 6-67% nickel unit world now.

So expect some continued softening in non-ferrous scrap metal streams.  Specifically with stainless, we continue to see this trend for the short to medium term – unless something fundamental changes.

So enjoy the last few days of the winter break.  For all of us parents, our holiday will start on Monday!

Cheers,