Coping with Change
Changes in copper and aluminum scrap trading and processing are causing concerns for scrap consumers.
Two different raw materials purchasers speaking at the Nonferrous Dialogue of the Gulf Coast Chapter Convention of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI) in New Orleans pointed to problems resulting from newer trends.
Janet Carmody, metal purchasing manager for the Port Huron, Mich., mill of Mueller Brass Co., said a variety of factors have made the purchase of scrap more difficult.
“My first concern is the lack of availability,” she noted. “I’m finding it very difficult to buy scrap. It concerns me what the long-term ramifications of that will be.”
Carmody said the economic slowdown, low Comex pricing, increased exporting of copper scrap and resulting shifts in supply have combined to make purchasing more difficult.
“Copper scrap exports to China last year were up 144%. That’s frightening to me,” she remarked. “Continued growth in that number, I think, will seriously alter our notions of scrap flows to mills, and it could severely impact the brass industry in particular.”
The scrap buyer said she has had to buy grades of scrap that normally go to other facilities, and those facilities in turn chase material normally going elsewhere. “Any move you make outside your normal range will affect others.”
Mills that are dependent on a narrow range of specifications could face the greatest pressure, said Carmody.