Metal Monday August 30, 2021 with Nick Snyder and Brett Ekart.
Play the youtube video and follow along with the text below.
Nick Snyder:
All right, welcome everybody. Last Monday of August, headed into September. How are you doing today Brett?
Brett Ekart:
I'm good, man, I'm good. Just trying to do what we do. Always trying to finish out the month strong.
Nick Snyder:
Yes sir. And it's been nice to see copper recover the last week or so.
Brett Ekart:
Yeah.
Nick Snyder:
So, that's always good.
Brett Ekart:
It'll be interesting to see what happens with China dumping a bunch of reserve material on the market here, starting September 1st. I forget the figures, but it was a lot of tons of copper, aluminum, [crosstalk 00:00:36], steel.
Nick Snyder:
They plan to do that monthly?
Brett Ekart:
They didn't do it last month, they are going to do it again this month. They did it in July. So, it'll be interesting just to see how that affects it. The ultimate goal for them is to try and keep the inflation, pricing, the commodities pricing at bay, which I think is a temporary fix. I mean, I don't know. I'm sure there's some gurus out there that could tell you how much they actually have in their reserves. I'm not the guy. I just kind of read the articles and kind of pay attention to what's going on. But I know that it's just like anything, when you flood the market with a certain amount of anything, whether it's dollar bills or pounds of copper, it generally tends to dilute the price or the value.
Nick Snyder:
And we saw that a few months ago when they did it, but then it bounced back. Like you said, is it temporary, is it sustainable? In that article that Pete Thomas posted about it, like he said, that they plan to do it every month. I don't know if that will really happen.
Brett Ekart:
Well, I have no doubt that that's the goal, right?
Nick Snyder:
Yeah.
Brett Ekart:
But like anything, they're called reserves for a reason. There's only so much... It's like a reserve fuel tank, right?
Nick Snyder:
Yeah.
Brett Ekart:
There's only so much fuel in your reserve fuel tank-
Nick Snyder:
Till you back to zero.
Brett Ekart:
And you're back to square one. So how much... Do you buy, consume and put away in your reserve tank? It'll probably depends, but I am a firm believer in there's, the only reason you do that is if you feel like that market is set to go or if it's trying to climb and you're trying to fight the tape and sometimes fighting the tape, isn't the best way, but I... Just only do what we do, buy some copper and sell some copper.
Nick Snyder:
Yeah. And I also read a interesting article about just inflation in general, posted by EmZee and real interesting and in their take on it is like, that ain't going away anytime soon. So we'll just see how it all plays out.
Brett Ekart:
Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I'm not an economist. I'm just trying to do what we do. So, pay attention to what's going on out there, the world events, the macro, and then obviously what's going on in your own company or the micro in your area and just try and make the best decision you can make.
Nick Snyder:
Absolutely. Have you talked to any mills, any shredders yet about [crosstalk 00:03:06]?
Brett Ekart:
The general consensus is people want us... they're trying to push the price down a little bit, which seems kind of counterintuitive to me to a certain extent, but I mean, we're just gnats on an elephant's ass over here. So, we just kind of... Wherever the elephant decides to take a shit, is where we usually land. So, if it's good, it's good. If it's bad, it's bad. I don't... We really have much control of the elephant.
Nick Snyder:
Nope. No, we'll just control what we can control and move forward.
Brett Ekart:
Exactly. Hopefully they had some something good for breakfast.
Nick Snyder:
All right. Anything else?
Brett Ekart:
That's it, man. Just have a great week and like always, the commodities business is a fun ride. And I don't see that changing anytime soon. I think we're going to get some big swings, both ways.
Nick Snyder:
Okay, okay.
Brett Ekart:
I'm feeling like it's going to be pretty volatile for a while. So, if you're trading it or if you're buying or selling or whatever, pick and choose your spots wisely and deal with reputable companies that can pay their bills.
Nick Snyder:
Absolutely. All right. Thanks, Brett.
Brett Ekart:
All right.