Nick: How you doing today, Brett?
Brett: Good, man. New month. I mean, back to zero, buy this train up. I can’t believe we’re in March, man.
Copper’s having a good day, PGMs are having a good day.
Nick: What’s the early chatter you and Chad will be discussing on your podcast? I assume you’re shooting it today?
Brett: Yep, shooting Bulls vs. Bears today.
Looks like we got up money coming. Ferrous prices should be up. Every region is different, but the markets are trending in a positive way for the steel mills as well as the scrap guys.
I think it’s hard not to be somewhat excited or optimistic about March. But you never know—tomorrow everything could be red and bleeding out of its ears.
Still, March should be good for the ferrous side. There’s not a lot of scrap out there, and that’s one of the reasons driving the pricing. We’ll see if it carries and lasts.
Nick: Yeah, we were just talking earlier about new steel prices.
Brett: Right. Some new steel guys are saying pricing is going up, so we’ve got to be aware of that with our customers. They’ll be looking at us, saying, “Okay, if the price of new steel is up, is the price of scrap up too?”
Maybe not to the same percentage, since new steel and scrap don’t always track together. But sometimes, when new steel prices rise, scrap follows.
We’ll keep you in the loop. You hit it on the head—there’s not a lot of scrap on the ground.
A lot of people I’ve talked to across the country say the same thing. Even at Consumer Night, that was a big topic. Prices are looking better, but not a lot of people have much ferrous. Same for non-ferrous, which is why aluminum prices are up.
Nick: Yeah, we’re used to carrying a lot of ferrous and non-ferrous inventory month over month.
Brett: Exactly. And it’s not by design, but because we have multiple yards. When you add up all those yards, the cumulative effect is carrying a lot of tons month over month.
But when we look at our yards going into this month, our ferrous and non-ferrous inventory isn’t as high as it’s been in the past few months.
Why? Because we’ve stayed running, stayed steady with shipping on the trucking side, and moved a lot of tons in the last couple of months. More than usual, thanks to decent weather.
February was rougher, which affected the inflow of tons. But in general, there aren’t a lot of tons to be bought out there.
If you’ve got tons this month, make sure you get a good price for them. Get them sold.
Nick: Have you noticed any changes in yard activity?
Brett: Yeah, inflows at our yards are already picking up. We had some high 50-60° weather last week, and people started cleaning up and bringing in scrap.
The flip side is that manufacturers are still pretty slow. Will that change soon? I hope so.
I’ve even heard of some people having to do layoffs, which no one likes. But we’ll see where this train goes. The manufacturing sector is just slower than it’s been in the last few years.
Nick: Yeah, but you’re still optimistic?
Brett: Definitely. We’re about five weeks into the new administration, and there are a lot of changes coming. There will be bumps in the road, but there’s also a lot of opportunity for people willing to take some risks.
So go out there and make some [ __ ] happen!
Nick: Oh, and one more thing—you won the cooler for the playoffs!
Brett: Yes, sir! I won the thing! You gotta get me that cooler.
Nick: You keeping it or giving it away?
Brett: I’m keeping it! If you win, you keep [ __ ]!
If you win the Super Bowl, you put that trophy on your shelf. You don’t give the trophy away. If someone wants it, they can come take it!
Next year, we’re going to try to do a weekly NFL pool for everybody. I’d love to do a weekly giveaway. Open to suggestions! I want a lot of people to join, and we’ll put it together before the next NFL season.
Nick: We’ve got some exciting stuff coming up, especially on the marketing side.
Brett: Yeah, stay tuned!
And if you’ve got ferrous scrap this month, it might be your month to move it.
Nick: Thanks, everybody. Have a great day!
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