Podcast Transcription: Metal Monday Ep. 20 - 5.17.2021

Hosts, Nick Snyder and Brett Ekart, talk about their weekend shenanigans, Tax Day, and the scrap market prices for the week of May 17, 2021.

Nick Snyder:

All right. Welcome! We are here on Monday. What is it? The 17th! It's tax day for everybody, postpone tax day. How are you doing Brett?

Brett Ekart:

Alive, paying my taxes so we can keep people on the dole. Keeping them from actually having to go get a job for another month or two.

Nick Snyder:

I'll never understand not wanting to work, but that's a whole different conversation.

Brett Ekart:

That's like eight podcasts in and of itself.

Nick Snyder:

Yeah.

Brett Ekart:

We'll go there some other day.

Nick Snyder:

I ain't going to lie, I procrastinated and I submitted mine last night at 8:00 PM. But, I got it in before the day.

Brett Ekart:

Yeah.

Nick Snyder:

So.

Brett Ekart:

Yeah, I had to write a few checks this morning. And I had my wife, I'm like, "Hey, give me that checkbook. I've got to write a few checks as well." So, I might've waited even longer than you.

Nick Snyder:

Yeah. I'm never in a rush to get those things done, man.

Brett Ekart:

Yes, sir.

Nick Snyder:

All right, man. Well, how's the market treating everybody, Brett?

Brett Ekart:

I think it's good. Looks like copper and some of the base metals are bouncing back a little bit this morning. They tailed off towards the middle-end of last week.

Nick Snyder:

Mm-hmm.

Brett Ekart:

Precious metals look pretty good, so far this morning. In general, I mean, I think everybody's anticipating a pretty good ferrous bump in June. So, I don't like telling people, "I told you so." But, at least as of now, it looks like June is going to be decent and July for that matter, in my opinion. But I guess time really will tell. I think the forecast looks good, I guess, so just say that.

Nick Snyder:

That's good. I mean, we had a great run on copper and this is what happens. It's not shocking that it makes an adjustment and that doesn't mean it's going to go down for a long time. It just makes a small adjustment. And a lot of times we see it take some time to find a new high, that's just the norm.

Brett Ekart:

You don't want it to go straight up.

Nick Snyder:

No.

Brett Ekart:

If it goes straight up, then it's setting up for a real big, quick down, right.

Nick Snyder:

Yeah.

Brett Ekart:

Not that it can't come down real quick, because we've seen that happen as well. But, I think you're better to step it up a little bit. I mean, that's what you need. You need a good, healthy pullback, sucks some liquidity back out of it. And that gives you a base to build on. I see it similarly on the ferrous side. We had a little bit of a pullback before. Not that I felt like that was necessary. But, had a good little healthy pullback. And then, I think, now we see the next climb. I guess we'll find out here soon enough. But, I feel like there's going to be some real opportunity in June and July to sell some scrap at a decent price.

Nick Snyder:

Yeah. I'm curious where that top lands. And like you said we saw it as a big run, what, December, January on ferrous. And then we saw... Was it February where we saw the dip? February?

Brett Ekart:

Yeah. January was good, February was off. I think with March you got a little bit back, then April came down again.

Nick Snyder:

Yeah.

Brett Ekart:

So, I mean, they're playing with the markets a little bit, but I don't know. Like I said, I'm fairly optimistic about where this train's headed on the ferrous side. The base metals on the non-ferrous side are still holding pretty strong. So, that's a good sign for moving forward.

Nick Snyder:

Yeah. And I want to give a shout-out to Jennifer Betts. She jumped on Clubhouse with us last Friday.

Brett Ekart:

Yeah.

Nick Snyder:

Which is curious to hear other people from different backgrounds that's more of a ferrous trader. I think you used to trade with her, didn't you?

Brett Ekart:

Yeah. She used to work for...

Nick Snyder:

DJJ.

Brett Ekart:

DJJ back in the day. And so she would buy iron for the Utah Mill. I think in Seattle at that time, which we were primarily shipping into Utah. But, yeah, so I dealt with her for a couple of years over here in our neck of the woods. And she's been in a scrap game for a while. I think she knows what she's talking about. She's getting good information out there. So, I enjoy her posts on LinkedIn. I think she's pretty with it when it comes to scrap.

Nick Snyder:

Well, it seems like she's optimistic enough to think we got a two to three-year run. And she's really the first person I've heard verbally say that out loud. A lot of other people think we got to maybe run throughout this year and then see some major dips in 2022. And only time will tell, but.

Brett Ekart:

You know how hard it is to predict next month, let alone two years.

Nick Snyder:

I know.

Brett Ekart:

That's why we don't really budget that hard in our business. People ask me like, "Oh, what are you budgeting for 2022?" I like, "Shit, you tell me the price of scrap in 2022, I'll give you a budget. But until you can tell me what the pricing looks like, it's pretty damn hard for me to give you a budget to tell you what it looks like."

Nick Snyder:

Yeah, for sure. Okay. Well, anything else, Brett?

Brett Ekart:

That's it, man. Just on the road. Got the seatbelt on. I got pulled over to the side, shopped up with you for a little bit, and then I'm back at it. So, have a good week.

Nick Snyder:

Okay.

Brett Ekart:

And I'll talk to you here in a little bit.

Nick Snyder:

Thanks, everybody. Bye-bye.

Brett Ekart:

All right. Take care.