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Welcome to Metal Roundup, the first of a series we will be producing each month, where we take a quick trip around the ferrous and nonferrous markets to share market insights and current events and how that might affect scrap metal prices for you here in the Cincinnati area. Our ultimate goal with this series is to touch on major markets, or current events that might have an effect on scrap metal prices locally and do it in a way that cuts out the fluff. So let's dive into our first roundup.
Ferrous
Scrap steel prices have been lower for the past few months in the Cincinnati area and throughout the midwest in general. One main reason for this could come down to simple supply and demand. We have seen a very mild winter in this region, this means that the flow of scrap metal from the public, industrial, and demolition companies has not dropped as much as it would with a very cold snowy winter. This means the scrap metal processors have more supply than they normally would this time of year. Couple this with steel mills producing more than 2% less as compared to this time last year. Larger supply in the market and less production could have very well lead us to much lower prices in the area.
Copper
Copper prices have seen a sudden surge in pricing this month. As of this article the COMEX is trading at $4.28 per pound, which is an 8% increase from last month. The sudden surge in futures comes on the heels of an announcement from China that Chinese smelters have agreed on a production cut. Although this announcement was made, they did not specify the timing of these cuts or what volume they would be cutting.
Copper demand has widely been considered a way to measure economic health. Copper is used in such a wide array of manufacturing processes that high demand typically means economic growth.
If the demand for copper continues, we should start to see the prices for scrap copper in the Cincinnati area rise.
Aluminum
Prices for aluminum have jumped slightly. Aluminum has become more and more popular in EV production over it's steel counterpart which could have lead to an uptick in prices. As we discussed in the Copper section, Chinese demand for Aluminum has also seen an increase. Lastly, we could speculate that the Chinese New Year could have played a role in some lost production of Aluminum
While Aluminum has remained fairly stable lately, this slight uptick in pricing may level out over the next few months, which means pricing for scrap aluminum may do the same.
Stainless
Scrap prices for Stainless Steel are generally driven by Nickel prices. While Nickel did see a rally in prices in Q1 of 2024, prices started to fall in late March. According to I-Scrap the national average for scrap 304 stainless steel is .31 cents per lb. As opposed to Copper, market sentiment for the Stainless Steel market seems to be weak.
That's a Wrap
Overall, the outlook on the scrap metal market prices seems to be doing ok. Scrap is a commodity and commodities will go up and down from time to time depending on things like the US economy, the global economy, current events, and just simple supply and demand.
We hope you've enjoyed the first of many Metal Roundups from A&A Recycling. If you're searching for scrap prices in Cincinnati, Hamilton, Dayton, Covington, or anywhere else in the Ohio, Kentucky, or Indiana area. We're here to serve you 7 days a week.
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