Commodities, Scrap Metal, Recycling and Economic Report
July 24, 2023
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This is the Commodities, Scrap Metal, Recycling and Economic Report, brought to you by BENLEE roll trailers, gondola trailers and roll off truck parts, July 24th, 2023.
U.S. weekly raw steel production rose slightly to 1.716MT a 75.5% utilization rate vs. 78.1% last year. U.S. slowing manufacturing may be near the bottom.
WTI crude oil price rose to $76.44/lb., as OPEC+ cuts continue. There are concerns over oil shortages in the 2nd half of 2023 when economies rebound.
The U.S. weekly oil rig count fell to 530 the lowest in 16 months on higher productivity per well, combined with the efforts to keep supplies tight, but rigs could increase in the coming months.
U.S. weekly crude oil production was steady at 12.3Mb/d, in a tight range for 14 months. U.S. companies are following OPEC’s lead in keeping supplies tight to maximize profits and shareholder returns.
Scrap Steel #1 HMS price was steady at $310/GT, with mixed reports on prices for August.
Hot-rolled coil steel price fell to $41.38/cwt., $828/T on slowing U.S. manufacturing.
Copper price fell to $3.82/lb., on slower than expected growth in China, but concerns over shortages remain.
Aluminum price fell to $1.00/lb., $2,212/mt. on strong supply and weak demand in China.
China Q2 GDP, economic growth. The economy grew at 6.3% vs last year, but that was under the forecast of 7.3%. Last year had lock downs, so this is not a great number. There is a record high youth unemployment of 21.3%.
Weekly Baltic Dry Index, which is the sea freight price index, a key economic indicator. It fell to 979 on slowing global growth, which helps lower inflation. The massive uptick in U.S. manufacturing construction sites will hurt this in future months.
U.S. June industrial production fell .42% vs. June last year. The last 100+ year average was 3.56% growth. Higher interest rates are clearly slowing the manufacturing economy.
U.S. June retail sales rose 1.49% over last year. This shows the consumer remains resilient, but this is not adjusted for the 3% inflation, so sales are down.
U.S. July NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Index, which is the sentiment of single-family home builders. It rose to 56, the highest since last year, but higher mortgage rate and elevated costs are hurting the index.
Wall Street’s Dow Jones Industrial Average rose a big 719 points to 35,228, the longest daily win streak since 2017. This was on good corporate profits and the fairly strong U.S. consumer.
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