The "What Did You Scrap" thread in the Scrap Metal Salvage is instructive. Lately, the recyclers are paying 8 or 9 cents for steel. They are getting paid less so they have to pay the public less. Demand is down. The Baltic Dry Index shows we are past the bubble economy and demand will have to be sustained at lower levels despite a higher worldwide population.
- Today's Quote is actually 933, not the 1200 or so shown above.
- Baltic_Dry_Index.png (77.1 KiB) Viewed 245 times
From Wikipedia:
The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is a number issued daily by the London-based Baltic Exchange. Not restricted to Baltic Sea countries, the index provides "an assessment of the price of moving the major raw materials by sea. Taking in 23 shipping routes measured on a timecharter basis, the index covers Handysize, Supramax, Panamax, and Capesize dry bulk carriers carrying a range of commodities including coal, iron ore and grain."[1]
So if less materials are moving, less stuff is being made and the industrial metal silver is going into fewer things. It makes sense that the price would drop. Sure, record numbers of ASEs are selling, but I don't think that makes up the difference in the lost industrial demand. Perhaps the investment demand from the whole world is sufficient. I dunno.
Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 8:52 am
