Conventional wisdom’s flip-side

There was a time when conventional wisdom had it that business would somehow get better once the summer holidays were over, that industrial production would improve, prices would rise, and scrap would start to flow. I suppose we learned somewhere along the way that a flip of the calendar from one month to another doesn’t do much in altering the state of our business, and on a more macro basis, the state of the world economies.

Concerns about the US economy, along with continued slow activity in Europe and a downturn in the emerging economies of the world, significant buyers of our scrap, continue to hamper an improvement in our business. Unfortunately, at least for now, any improvement seems far off, but pessimism is always easy when things are going well. Hopefully, the turnaround will be upon us soon.

We are busy preparing for our Autumn Convention in Warsaw, and we are very happy to let you know that, among our speakers, Martin Abbott, CEO of the London Metal Exchange, will make a presentation.  Mr Abbott has always been a supporter of our industry, and we look forward to having him speak to us one more time before his term ends at the turn of the year.   

Robert Stein
Alter Trading (USA)
President of the BIR Non-Ferrous Metals Division
26 August 2013

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