Metal Monday Episode #23 with Nick and Brett, June 5th, 2023

Brett and Nick are back with another mobile Metal Monday to talk about t pricing is looking as we start June. Copper seems to be making a comeback, but will it last? Tune in to hear their thoughts. Make sure to send any questions you'd like the guys to answer to (208) 487-4311

Transcription

foreign we got another mobile Metal Monday I am down and well they call it sunny California but it’s been kind of gloomy California since I’ve been down here overcast to California I got yeah I got proof I got a couple palm trees right there you know so visiting some family can’t miss our Metal Monday we’re in a new month we are in June which is crazy that it’s yeah middle of the Year already I know and one more month and we’re halfway through yes sir all right copper seem like we’re gonna get down to the 350s we’re sitting at 377 right now as I speak and why why the recovery because I don’t know it’s so hard to know I think a lot of it’s that debt deal got put together signed off um you know the inflation reduction Act of printing more money you know it’s yeah whatever it is call what you want to that’s I think that’s what’s helping Drive the market um I think people are getting warmed up to the idea that maybe China is going to stimulate their economy which then is usually good for Commodities especially Commodities

like copper which are very heavily consumed by countries like China and they in not Asian basically region in general so um we’ll see man I I think that that’s part of it um you know a couple of different factors but we’re waiting four dollars again yeah it’ll come back I I mean you know what three what are the 377 coppers in town like that’s uh I mean it’s a far cry from two dollars so and so we’ll uh we’ll take it yeah man I mean I’ve heard both sides of the story where some people are screaming It’s Gonna Get Down 250 I don’t see that I don’t see that big a dip you know yeah um and then uh here hold on but I I think we’re gonna still be about above 350 hopefully closer to four throughout the throughout the end of the year um yeah we’ll see I mean it depends on how the economy has a whole shapes up you know um I don’t know I gotta say ferris is going to be the more interesting Market to watch um it feels like you know obviously June’s gonna be a little

bit softer Chad and I did our uh um Bulls versus Bears so that’ll be out today as well um but yeah it’s June’s gonna soften up again it looks like you know to what extent and then coming into the heat in the summer we’ll see what flows look like and kind of how that changes the landscape on pricing but um we’re probably in for some tricky times on the Commodities then so as a matter of just keeping scrap moved and processed and rolling and adjusting when you do see some dips and adjusting when you see some you know UPS you know get giving that over to the customer but being safe enough to move it um you know in a time where you’re not getting caught it’s a company you know so that’s what yeah you know some people don’t quite understand like we have to do have to protect ourselves so we can stay in business so we can help everyone you know because we don’t do any good we don’t do any good to any of our customers we can’t keep the lights on you know yeah so yeah exactly exactly you

know so we’re always trying to find that magic number get people the best possible number they can where we can still you know keep our operation flowing and keep our service where it needs to be and the price is so decent you know I mean the pricing is decent it’s not where we we would necessarily like it to be but it’s still at a reasonable price you know that we can still make money if we can uh get it processed on time and get it delivered and get through the system so you know like I said I’ve seen it a lot worse I’m not I’m not as concerned about that as much as just trying to um keep keep material moving keep keep stuff going um but just like anything right it can turn on a dime yep absolutely in a positive way yeah we’ll watch and see I mean we know Ferris is dipping you know this month I don’t know the extent you know it’s going to be different in different parts of the country um but we’ll see what July August we’ll see what they all bring we’ll see what the

flows bring you know we all the people that work at a scrap yard or for some of our customers we’ll see how busy they are we’ll see if that flows it the orders that they’re getting and it was like a couple months ago people were telling me it’s starting to slow down I went and saw a fair amount of people last week um before I went on this trip and a lot of them were a lot more positive which was a nice because that’s kind of where I hear it I just try to listen to people doing the work they’re like no we’re good like yeah they’re like we’re busy now you know they I think a lot of it was fear of a recession um and a lot of it’s like a lot of the stuff to me seems like it’s an action of fear and the fears out of maybe safety to not overextend yourself in our production meeting this morning we discussed this and I said and we discussed like being overstaffed right and I said yeah we’re not overstaffed until this building is clean it’s and span every piece of

trash picked up inside the yard the Landscapes right like there’s so many levels I mean and and the reason I wanted to bring that up is because over overstaffed last two years 2020 2021 the first half of 22 were so crazy so busy so hard to find help you just got used to doing way more with way less equipment and people and it to to now where it almost feels like it’s kind of slowed down a little bit I think people are they makes them nervous because they’re like well they used to be way busier than this right well it did because you had less you had an influx of material less people to help you so it created this and it did create some really efficiencies in your within your business I proved to you what kind of move what kind of volume you could get through but also there’s a point where maybe you were delaying some maintenance or maybe you were delaying you know you’re working your guys 70 hours a week right because you just had to get through it well this may be just kind of a normalization of

where the market should be right so it’s maybe it’s yeah it’s not gangbuster 2021 busy but there’s also a lot of stuff you can pick up from that and say okay like how do we like where are our efficiencies let’s find those and then let’s let’s project this as The New Normal and figure out how to live within this range yeah absolutely and you always can do you know with the crew you have you know depending on how busy you are or what needs to be done there’s always always a better way to do it so if you do slow down a little bit you just kind of take a harder look like well how could we be smarter about it so we save money you know so when we do get busy again which will happen when we get crazy busy we’re better at it we’re better we’re ready to handle it with maybe the same crew we have now and then you don’t have to add a bunch of employees because you got better at everything and you kept the loyal employees around that busted their ass and because you know the

Loyalty works both ways we have to be loyal to the ones that bust their ass for us you know 100 it’s a little slower you know at least that’s how I look at it you know so yeah um well cool Brett thank you amen safe travel and uh we’ll see you tomorrow yes sir all right everybody have a great week and I’m looking forward to that Bulls versus Bears with Chad okay have a great all right thanks guys bye