Podcast Transcription: Metal Monday Ep. 18 - 5.3.2021

Hosts, Nick Snyder and Brett Ekart, talk about their weekend shenanigans and the scrap market prices for the week of May 3, 2021.

Nick Snyder:

All right. We are officially in May. It is Metal Monday.

Brett Ekart:

Yes, sir. The first Metal Monday of May. The triple M.

Nick Snyder:

And things are just holding on. They already going crazy from last week.

Brett Ekart:

Yep.

Nick Snyder:

We're still north of $4.50 copper.

Brett Ekart:

Yep.

Nick Snyder:

Let's look.

Brett Ekart:

It was like $4.52 or $4.51 this morning.

Nick Snyder:

Yeah. $4.51 right now as we speak.

Brett Ekart:

Yeah.

Nick Snyder:

Everything is green platinum, palladium, rhodium at least on this Kitco app Sideways.

Brett Ekart:

It's up a little bit, rhodium is.

Nick Snyder:

Yeah.

Brett Ekart:

Yep.

Nick Snyder:

So things are just holding on, man. I don't know if we found the new top for copper or if it's going to still break through the-

Brett Ekart:

$5, bud.

Nick Snyder:

$5 by July?

Brett Ekart:

Third-quarter.

Nick Snyder:

Third-quarter?

Brett Ekart:

Yep.

Nick Snyder:

Okay. Okay.

Brett Ekart:

That's my guess.

Nick Snyder:

So, yeah, it's nice to see it that way. I do get scared when it goes that high, that quick.

Brett Ekart:

Yeah.

Nick Snyder:

Because I've seen it take that dip too.

Brett Ekart:

It's the escalator up and the elevator down.

Nick Snyder:

Yeah.

Brett Ekart:

Step, step, step, step, boom. So I don't know. I don't really see that coming for copper right now. There had to be a pretty big geopolitical... Some sort of event to really take the gas out of copper. It's not the only commodity that's hot. You hear a lot of conversation about lumber right now. Same thing. It's a commodity used in manufacturing. It's used for homes, it's used for commercial, and some speculation going on, I'm sure, just because of the whole green energy push that's coming our way with electric vehicles and the grid and this and that. But really the push is going to come from the export market, in my opinion. Right now that the domestic market is strong, but I think the reality of it is, is the export market, when it really turns on, when India gets out of the crap that they're in right now with the whole COVID pandemic. And then you've got China's finally opening all the way back up. It's going to be a slowish week and then it's game on.

Nick Snyder:

And once they get the containers figured back out, once that-

Brett Ekart:

That's a big part of it.

Nick Snyder:

That's going to take some time.

Brett Ekart:

Yeah. And really, people got to get used to $4 copper.

Nick Snyder:

Yeah.

Brett Ekart:

When it climbs as fast as it has, there's still a kind of a getting used to it period.

Nick Snyder:

Mm-hmm.

Brett Ekart:

Cashflow wise, I talk to brokers a lot and there's a lot of guys out there that are talking like, just what it costs to ship stuff right now, and then how much money you got sitting on the water at $4 copper and they're just like, "Man, it becomes kind of a cash flow dance."

Nick Snyder:

Yeah, absolutely, and same with catalytic converters.

Brett Ekart:

Absolutely.

Nick Snyder:

It's just right there. The only thing that's really not doing really well is nickel.

Brett Ekart:

Yeah, it had its day in the sun a couple of months ago.

Nick Snyder:

It did, a couple of months ago.

Brett Ekart:

But you saw it. It was getting close. It climbed almost back to $8.

Nick Snyder:

Yeah. It's down a little today.

Brett Ekart:

Yeah.

Nick Snyder:

We don't need to overreact on it, but it's down like 13 cents today.

Brett Ekart:

Mm-hmm.

Nick Snyder:

That's just the one that's just not doing real hot. The main reason it did really hot back then is because of the speculation on electric cars, again.

Brett Ekart:

The battery stuff, yeah.

Nick Snyder:

And Elon Musk tweeted it.

Brett Ekart:

Yeah.

Nick Snyder:

Which that just kind of shows you the power of Twitter in someone's hands.

Brett Ekart:

Yeah. And to me, it's not even the power of Twitter as much as the power of the guy, right?

Nick Snyder:

Yeah, that's true.

Brett Ekart:

It's the brand, it's him, what he believes, what he speculates on. People kind of tend to follow him. If he could have put that on LinkedIn or put it on Instagram or whatever else, I think it still would have made it pretty big impact. Ferrous pricing, we haven't knocked down any ferrous pricing yet this month, but we're probably looking at a pretty good up month. I don't think it really started that way a week, two weeks ago, but it feels like after last week, a strong week-

Nick Snyder:

Even beginning of last week, we thought maybe up to five.

Brett Ekart:

Yeah.

Nick Snyder:

But is that-

Brett Ekart:

I think it's going to push significantly harder than that. And I don't know-

Nick Snyder:

You thinking up 20? What do-

Brett Ekart:

I don't know. I hate to speculate on that too far, but I think 20 should be a pretty easy number to get this month if you've got material.

Nick Snyder:

Got it. Well, good. I guess in a week we'll know and we'll let everybody know.

Brett Ekart:

All right, sir.

Nick Snyder:

Thanks, everybody.

Brett Ekart:

Have a great week, everybody.