Recycling, Scrap Metal, Commodities and Economic Report

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This is the Recycling, Scrap Metal, Commodities and Economic Report, April 22nd, 2024.

U.S. weekly raw steel production fell to 1.73MT, down 2.4% from last year on slow U.S. manufacturing.

WTI crude oil price fell to $83.14/b., on the limited Israeli response to Iran. A question is will China’s flooding the world with Electric vehicles, lower oil demand and then, lower oil prices?

U.S. weekly crude oil production was steady at 13.1Mb/d., just off the recent record in American History. The U.S. is the #1 energy exporter in the world: oil, and LNG, liquified natural gas combined). I repeat the U.S. is the #1 energy exporter in the world.

The U.S. weekly oil rig count rose to 511, the biggest reading since Mid-October. High prices could bring very slow higher production. Too fast of an increase would lower prices and lower oil company profits.

Scrap steel #1 HMS price was steady at $325/GT, on slow, but steady demand.

Hot-roll coil steel price rose slightly to $41.63/cwt., $833/T on continued slow U.S. manufacturing.

Copper price rose to $4.49/lb., the highest in nearly 2 years. This was on good demand, less Chinese smelting and Zambia and Panama lower supply.

Aluminum price jumped to $1.21/lb., $2,665/mt on western sanctions on Russian aluminum.

Chinese Q1 GDP, economic growth. It grew at 5.3%, which was ahead of the 5.0% forecast. Government support and spending is helping growth.

U.S. March home building permits fell by 4.3% to 1.46M annualized. This was the lowest since July on higher interest rates.

U.S. March industrial production rose .4% from February, with Q1 down 1.8% annually. Manufacturing is 78% of this measure and was up .5%, driven by motor vehicle production. Overall capacity utilization was 78.4%, 1.2% lower than the long term average.

U.S. March retail sales increased 4% vs last year on a 3.5% inflation. It was up a big .7% vs February as online stores were up 2.7% from February.

Wall Street’s Dow Jones industrial average rose 3 points to 37,986. Strong retail sales means there is a good economy, which brings higher inflation, which brings higher for longer interest rates, which hurts Wall Street Stocks.

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