Nice to be wanted

It's been quite a year - one filled with record-breaking high prices for the commodities in which we deal; mergers and acquisitions of huge proportion in the metals and minerals business; and guarded optimism about what next year will bring.

The US dollar will play an important role in 2008, that's for certain. Its low value is having a direct bearing on world trade. China now ships more goods to Europe than it does to the United States, and the economy in parts of China is beginning to suffer at the downturn in exports of products to American markets. This will serve to exacerbate the current shortage of containers in North America as fewer will be available to be loaded with scrap. Grain shippers, suffering the effects of extremely high bulk ocean rates, have been shipping by container, as have exporters of scrap iron. While this situation will eventually correct itself, the cost of scrap to Chinese buyers will no doubt go up as our ability to make shipments decreases.

Seethe monthly world wide market update in our Members only section withreports from key countries.