2003 Ferrous Scrap Supplement: Welcome...

A NEED TO KNOW

Dialog can’t solve all problems, as past and current world tensions demonstrate. But in many instances, efforts by two sides to communicate more often and exchange information can yield a greater understanding of a situation.

If that is the case, recent efforts by the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI) and the Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) to co-host and co-sponsor educational and dialog sessions should prove worthwhile for members of the scrap and steel industries.

Events aimed at getting mill buyers, brokers and scrap dealers and processors into the same room with access to the same microphone have led to the desired dialog and debate. Without question, some scrap dealers do not understand the positions taken by certain mill buyers, and, contrarily, some mill buyers are equally skeptical of the actions of some of their suppliers.

Ultimately, participants from both sides understand the bottom-line pricing aspects of their relationship. Mills are looking for raw materials that will allow them to conduct least-cost suitable-charge melts, and dealers want to sell scrap at a fair price with minimal rejections or requests for downgrades.

But within this framework there is a lot of room for acrimony and suspicion, as scrap is not a product manufactured in such a way that it is either clearly defective or that it is not.

Meetings and dialog events cannot end the inevitable clashes that might occur over the fitness of a given shipment. But what they can do, collectively, is allow participants from each side to hear a consistent message about how the majority of their customers or suppliers prefer to do business.

An idea repeated frequently in front of an ample number of people often begins to gain weight and momentum. It might be idealistic thinking, but if enough of the more hard-headed mill buyers and scrap suppliers begin to see their own actions being held out as the kind that are disrespected by their peers, it could increase their tendency to look at a situation from both sides of an issue, promoting better communication and understanding.