Nonferrous

Prices for many forms of nonferrous scrap have improved in the past six months, although improvement for copper has been modest.

Unfortunately for many traders and dealers, the ability to enjoy any profits from the slightly higher numbers has been hampered by a shortage of material to process and trade.

Those in the aluminum scrap trade have been lamenting a shortage of material for some time—most notably since auto shredders began cutting back their production in late 1998. Processors of copper, too, have also found material hard to come by, often blaming speculators who are holding onto copper and brass scrap until the prices approach closer to the $1 per pound level seen in the mid-1990s.

There are eager pursuers for material that comes onto the market, such as wire and cable. “People who run chopping lines are aggressively out there in the buy market in order to keep their operations running,” says one East Coast trader.

On the sell side, however, many participants are not yet sure the time is right. “There are those inventorying copper, some of it that they bought at the 90 cents to $1 per pound level,” says the trader. “These people are turning over their aluminum, and now their iron, since that price has gone up, but they may be holding on to their copper. Generally, the East Coast is hurting for volume,” the trader adds.