Scrap Metals Supplement--Welcome

Consultants and analysts who study business trends seem to agree that the pace of change in the business world is occurring faster than it ever has.

Instant communication, real-time sales and inventory tracking and an emphasis on flexible and fluid planning have kept managers busy adjusting old plans and making new ones on a weekly basis.

All this occurs amidst constant pressure by companies to keep their costs low to stay competitive. Maintaining low costs has had several sharp impacts, including an emphasis on purchasing wisely and on seeking out the lowest possible labor costs.

This collision of two storm fronts—rapid technological change and an almost messianic devotion to keeping costs low—is helping make possible one of the fastest and most amazing economic and societal shifts in history in China.

The leap in China from an agrarian-based economy to an industrial/technological one, driven by multi-national corporations as much as Chinese government leadership, is happening so fast that it has wreaked havoc in global commodity markets.

"Havoc" is, perhaps, a relative term, since when commodity markets fluctuate there are both winners and losers, and the winners (many of them recyclers in this case) don’t necessarily use the word "havoc" to describe their situation.

Recyclers know as well as anyone, though, that commodity markets are fickle. Shrewd corporate managers who quickly moved production away from Mexico and into China earlier this decade could just as quickly move that production—and the scrap generation and demand it represents—as it "follows the money" to another opportune market.

The pace of change is not likely to slow down, and metals recyclers and the leading edge of the market they represent are likely to be the first to catch wind of the next major changes in global economic trends.