I Got X.XX For Shred Today - Page 30

$.085 lb. So $170 a ton. Not bad prices going up.

Down to $160 a ton here

I was expecting the very worst, but things were quite fine. Sold shred today at CAD 135 / TM (USD 109 / ton). I am happy with that price, because I previously sold at CAD 75.00 and 90.00 in the last years. The yard was empty (lowest inventory I ever saw there, not even enough shred to fill up a 10 wheeler box and it was on the afternoon coffee break (no one in the yard too). Just too bad the gas prices are not the same. I fueled unleaded regular at CAD 1.549 / liter (USD 4.30 / gallon) Monday and I saw it at 1.799 / liter (USD 4.99 / gallon) Yesterday. That's a 16% price hike (due to pure creed and speculation) in the same week.

We shipped out a pulper truck with attached trailer a few days ago. The metals pile was getting big and hard to tend. Just guessing but maybe 30-50 ton of semi compacted shred ? It was headed off to a large metals recycling company that's based in Canada. One would think that shred prices would be expected to drop this time of year because there is so much supply with people doing their spring cleanup projects. We've been getting slammed lately.

I've worked gas stations off and on for a long time. Prices usually start going up a bit before Memorial Day here in the states. ( That's next Monday. ) Memorial day has been the traditional kickoff date of our summer tourist season. Higher demand with people leisure driving hundreds of miles on vacation usually translates to higher prices at the pump. They also claim that the gas is specifically blended to meet emissions standards at higher summertime temps. It's more costly to make so it's more costly to buy.

JMO ... i'm more inclined to think it's just supply and demand. Most retailers here work a margin of 3 -5 cents a gallon of net profit. The tankwagon haulers and the refineries tend to work certain margins as well. It's not a huge money maker unless you're doing massive amounts of volume. The real money is in pumping and exporting crude oil on the global market.

Gas stations located near highway 20 (aka the backbone aka Trans-Canada Highway) are still selling at CAD 1.599 / liter while it is 1.799 / liter a few miles away. Strangely, it was done right after our stat holiday last week, not on the Thursday or Friday before the holiday as it is usually done.

By the way, it doesn't changed much after all, but at least they get caught red-handed a few years ago. What's stranger is some regions will see the price hike and some others do not and they're all sourcing gas from the same oil refineries. Also, we don't have a price cap while Ontario and the Maritime provinces do. Provincial government does not really want to act, because they highly tax gas and their tax is % based. Higher gas prices mean higher tax revenues and less willingness for them to act for consumers interests.

S/S 304 prices are very bad too. I just sold at USD 0.174 / lbs (CAD 0.23 / lbs), because I felt that I didn't have enough volume to go crosstown to another yard who deal more S/S. These yards announce that they buy S/S between CAD 0.44 and 0.60 per pound. Aluminum seems not to be much better. The only stable and decent commodity seems to be copper and its derivatives, but I am not selling it right now.