Dive Brief:
- Scrap metal dealers and others in the recycling industry are hurting for business, given lower international demand for scrap metal. China’s slowing economy is one factor, but increased steel imports and less demand at home for US scrap also are factors.
- The dollar’s strength compared to foreign currencies makes scrap steel and other recyclables from the U.S. a tougher sell, since they are more costly than similar materials from other countries.
- As a result, longtime U.S. scrap buyers such as China and Turkey are not buying as much.
Dive Insight:
The current crisis in scrap metals reveals a longer-term issue, of how U.S. scrap firms plan to transform themselves as China’s economy and other national economies grow enough to need less and less U.S. scrap.
Pittsburgh provides a cautionary tale regarding being overly dependent on metals markets. Once known as the "Steel City," Pittsburgh has suffered for decades since the demise of large steel firms across the country in the 1980s.