[TheForge] Treadle Hammer Anvil Stand

[ries]

On Jun 9, 2008, at 8:49 AM, Andrew Vida wrote:



ries wrote:

> The value of land, the expense of running a business, means in most  
> west coast states, anyway, a scrap yard goes out of business if it  
> is waiting to get top dollar for that usable scrap like 6" round.
> Not a good thing, but an unfortunate truth around here.

	Things are different on the east coast, though not as different as it  
once was.  I can't believe that the yards are paying almost $14/100  
for scrap!  It is ridiculous, but I guess that is the result of  
China's insatiable appetite.


China?
Well only partly.
We make just under 100 million TONS of steel a year in the USA, and  
about half of that is made from recycled steel.

So the USA's insatiable appetite is accounting for around 50 million  
tons of scrap a year- not a small amount, by anybody's math.

Certainly the chinese demand affects world prices for both scrap and  
new- but we still consume a fair amount of steel ourselves, and make  
around 80% of what we need right here at home.

Just imagine how much steel it will take to rebuild the earthquake  
affected zone in China- they build steel reinforced concrete almost  
exclusively, and whole cities are gone- I am guessing the rebuild  
demands on the rebar market will affect steel prices for a year or two.

Ries




Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist
http://www.riesniemi.com/