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This is the Global Economic, Commodities, Scrap Metal and Recycling Report, by BENLEE Roll off Trailers and Open Top Scrap Gondola trailers, April 27th, 2020. This is a remote edition.
COVID-19 Update as of 5:00 AM. Forecasted U.S. deaths are 67,641 thru August 4th, per IHME. This is up significantly from the last forecast. The good news is, we are near a plateau. 965,933 have been infected in the U.S., and 54,877 dead in the past 8 weeks. As a reference, car accidents in 2019 had 38,800 deaths and the seasonal flu in the 2018-2019 season had 34,200 deaths. As for other bad news, the possible game changer Hydroxychloroquine has had two studies showing more COVID deaths using the drug vs not using it, so the FDA has issued a warning about its use, BUT Good news is, some states are reopening.
U.S. weekly steel production rose to 1.277M Tons, near a 10 year low as most automotive and other manufacturing remains closed.
Oil price fell to $16.94/b, after actually going negative during the week and was $14.60 this morning, due to the world is running out oil storage space. Related, massive amounts of Saudi Arabian Oil is off the cost of California ready to unload. Oversupply is a serious issue for the global oil industry.
The U.S. Oil rig count fell to 378, a multi-year low, on low and negative oil prices. Saudi Arabia and Russia’s flooding the oil market with the plan to hurt U.S. oil companies, is working.
U.S. weekly oil production rose to 12.2M/b/d, down 900K/b/d in 5 weeks, as U.S. Shale oil and traditional oil fell.
Iron ore fell to $83.50/ton as demand remains depressed.
Scrap Steel No. 1 HMS export buying price Philadelphia rose to $175/GT on just OK demand, but limited supply.
Scrap steel #1 HMS price was steady at $186/GT, as demand and supply remain depressed.
Hot Roll Coil steel fell to $23.18/Hundred on continued slow demand.
Copper rose to $2.36/lb. the highest price in weeks, which is a very positive economic indicator as the world restarts the economy.
Aluminum fell to 66.5 cents per pound, on limited demand and supply.
April’s Eurozone (an economy about the size of the U.S.) had its IHS manufacturing index fall to 33.6, with the biggest drop-in factory activity since February 2009. Manufacturing output fell to record lows. The good news is, Volkswagen is working on reopening some plants.
U.S. March sales of new single-family homes plunged 15.4% to an annualized 627K, a multi month low, but COVID issues will make this much worse in April.
U.S. Weekly unemployment claims fell to 4.4M, so 26.5 M jobs have been lost in 5 weeks. This means the 22M jobs created since Sept. 2010, during the Obama and Trump administrations combined, are more than gone in just 5 weeks.
Wall Street’s Dow Jones fell 467 points to 23,775 as the economy remains in free fall, but the U.S. government pumped another $484 Billion into the economy.
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