Loading price data
This is the Global Economic, Scrap Metal, Commodities and Recycling Report, by BENLEE Roll off Trailers and Gondola Trailers, September 9th 2019.
U.S. steel production fell to 1.850 Million tons, a 12-month low on slowing U.S. manufacturing.
Here is an old chart. U.S. steel production from 2007 through mid-2009; that was bad. 2019 is nothing like 2008.
Oil rose to $56.20 a barrel, as OPEC cuts shipments to the U.S., which lowers U.S. inventories, which supports higher global prices.
U.S. oil production fell to 12.4M barrels a day, near the recent record, as shale oil growth continues.
Iron ore rose to $90/Ton, on steady to slowing global demand.
Scrap steel #1 HMS fell about $40/Ton to about $208/GT, a multiyear low, on global slowing.
Hot roll coil steel fell to $28.31/Hundred on continued slowing demand.
Copper rose to $2.63, just above the multiyear low, on hopes of a China trade deal.
Aluminum rose to 79.8 cents, like copper on hopes of a China trade deal.
Cardboard scrap OCC SE was steady at the decade low $35/Ton. China demand remained weak as is U.S. demand, as major U.S. users are implementing cardboard alternatives and reducing packaging.
Euro Area Economic growth is important because the Euro economy is larger than the U.S. economy. They slowed and grew at only .2%, with Germany being negative due to less shipments to China.
China’s August Imports, fell 5.6% vs last year, with unwrought copper and steel products falling the most, while copper concentrate rose. Importantly, the U.S. shipped 22.4% less to China and Europe shipped 5.2% less. The Tariff war is hurting both sides.
August’s U.S. Manufacturing fell into contraction mode. New orders, production, backlogs and employment all fell. U.S. is shipping less to China.
July’s U.S. Trade deficit with the rest of the world improved slightly, but is still bad. Our deficit was worse with China, Europe, Mexico and Japan.
August’s U.S. job creation was 130,000, which is OK, but only about 1/3 of some of the levels the U.S. hit in 2014, and has been trending down in 2019.
Even with the slowing, the percent unemployment remained steady at a low 3.7%, which supports great consumer spending, helping offset weak manufacturing.
The Labor participation rate is those over 16 years of age, that can work and are working. It rose to 63.2, so only 63.2% that can work, are working. We need to get more people into the workforce to pay taxes vs. sitting at home.
Wall Street’s Dow Jones Average rose to 26,797 on positive trade talks with the China. The current U.S. growth of about 2.5% could be 3.25% or more, if we had a trade deal with China.
Safety remains key to us at BENLEE. To save lives we added two standard safety features to our trailers that you can retrofit to older BENLEE units. Sadly, this week we met a new manager at a very large customer who oversees our units. NONE had been retrofitted with the Danger, Electrocution warning sign, which is 1 penny, yes one penny and none had the hoist up sensor/strobe warning light which is a very inexpensive $270. Call us or order them online today, if you have not installed them.
Member