BIR World Mirror on Non-Ferrous Metals - July 2012

A highly successful event

Our program in Rome was tremendously successful thanks to the participation of our Non-Ferrous Metals Board and to the excellent presentations of our speakers.

I would like to thank all for the interesting program, as well as the International Trade Council (ITC) for its enlightening focus session on theft and security issues that affect our industry - problems that continue to be at the forefront of our trade.

Education on these matters is paramount in helping to solve the problems, and the Non-Ferrous Metals Division, along with the BIR Secretariat and the ITC, has been an active participant in pushing for accountability from shipping lines and authorities to stem the theft of scrap from our export shipments. We will report on this on the website as progress is made.

On a related matter, on-going negative articles about the scrap industry, most appearing in one particular publication in the United States, are insulting to the majority of businesses that operate legitimately.

Articles seemingly taken at face value from various internet search engines without any journalistic observations of even minimum quality are easy space-fillers for editors, and are generally not of vast interest to market participants...

Robert Stein
Alter Trading (USA)
President of the BIR Non-Ferrous Metals Division
May 2012

Read the full market report in our members' area.