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his is the Global Economic, Scrap Metal, Commodities and Recycling Report, by BENLEE Roll off Trailers and Open Top Scrap Haulers, August 20th, 2018.
Last week commodity prices mostly fell and economic reports were mostly weaker.
U.S steel production rose slightly, to a new multi-year high as tariffs remain keeping imported finished steel out of the U.S.
The U.S. Dollar closed down a bit vs. other currencies, but it actually hit a 13 month high last Monday. Commodity prices tend to decline as the dollar rises, which did happen last week.
Oil fell about $2/barrel to $65.92 as global demand and supply remains mostly balanced.
U.S. oil production rose to 10.9 Million barrels a day, remaining near last month’s all-time record of 11M barrels. Great news for the U.S. economy.
Iron ore fell $2/Ton ending at $67.50/Ton on little news and the same good global balance of supply and demand as oil.
Scrap steel #1 Heavy Melt remained steady at about $322/GT, but we are hearing of lower export prices partly due the doubling of U.S. tariffs from Turkey. Prices remain about double 2.5 years ago, so incoming flows to scrap yard while down, remain OK, so lower prices could be coming.
Hot dipped galvanized steel remained at $1,170/Ton, near the multiyear high, on a good demand and supply balance and remained near its multi-year high.
Copper fell 8 cents to $2.66/lb., after having hit a new multi-year low of about $2.53 during the week. A concern is, Copper has been called Dr. Metal, the Metal with the PhD that knows what is going on in the economy. There are many, many good things going on in the global and U.S. economy, other than the Tariff issues and the Turkey problem, but is there something else going on? Copper is up about a penny this morning.
The 5-year chart shows prices remain near 1 year lows on economic and tariff concerns.
Copper inventories fell slightly, on the concerns about where the market is going.
Aluminum fell about 3 cents to 90.6 cents, a 5 month low on tariff concerns and market concerns.
Aluminum LME inventories fell slightly, approaching new 8-year lows on the market concerns.
August’s U.S. Consumer Sentiment fell to its lowest level in 11 months, with the decline concentrated by households in the bottom third income distribution. Buying conditions of household durables like washing machines fell to about a 4 year low and vehicle buying conditions were viewed as the least favorable in the last four years with prices judged less favorable than any time since late 1984, 34 years ago. Tariffs continue to do very good and bad things to the economy.
July’s U.S. Housing starts rose .9% to 1.17 Million annualized from June, from the sharp June drop of 12.9%. Single family homes which make up 862 thousand rose .9% and multi-family housing rose .7%
July’s U.S. Industrial Production rose, but at a slower rate, as motor vehicle and machinery production rose at a slower rate. Fabricated metal products were unchanged, while mining and utilities contracted.
Wall Street’s Dow Jones industrial average gained a big 356 points ending at 25,669 as the U.S. and China announced their plan to hold trade talks to find a way out the growing trade war that has disturbed markets.
I wanted to highlight something we talked about in this report two weeks ago. BENLEE not only recommends Auto Air Inflation systems for all the new roll off trailer and Open Top Gondola Trailers we sell, but you can call us to buy retrofit kits for your highest volume trailers you currently run to reduce fires, get better fuel mileage and longer tire wear bringing higher uptime and reduced costs. And yes, we sell Wheel Checks (the Green Arrow pieces) as well, to reduce the cost of pretrip labor, checking for loose lug nuts.
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