So which
commodities are inflated?
The Secondary Materials Industry Primer: in Connecticut
"Junk Yards" - a
specialty of "About Weston" from back in the late 1960's in NYC!
An this is an item of news even in Whidbey Island!
Illegal 'hulk haulers' emerge in Island
County as price of metals rises
Whidbey News-Times (State of Washington)
Published: July 30, 2008 10:00 AM
Updated: July 30, 2008 10:38 AM
When journeying down Island County back roads a year ago, one might
have discovered a handful of abandoned cars by the side of the road or
parked on private lots. Not any more.
That old junker you thought was worth almost nothing is on average now
worth about $300 to Puget Sound scrap processors.
Lois Young, who is in charge of marketing and recycling services at
Skagit River Steel and Recycling in Burlington, said that the shortage
of metals can be attributed to global supply and demand. The relatively
nascent Chinese industrial revolution and growth in South America’s
latest steel-seeker, Brazil, has resulted in a significant per-ton
increase.
According to Young, iron is now fetching about $300 to $500 per ton on
the market.
“It has gone up a couple hundred dollars over the last year per ton,”
said Young.
This staggering increase is translating into a thriving market for
legitimate, but more prevalently, illegitimate hulk haulers and
unscrupulous scrap processors who have made some Puget Sound counties
home to illegal trafficking.
According to state law, a hulk hauler is “any person who deals in
vehicles for the sole purpose of transporting and/or selling them to a
licensed vehicle wrecker or scrap processor in substantially the same
form in which they are obtained. A hulk hauler may not sell secondhand
motor vehicle parts to anyone other than a licensed vehicle wrecker or
scrap processor.”
Unfortunately, properly licensed hulk haulers seem to be in the
minority.
“It’s unreal,” said Dave Campbell, co-owner of Island Recycling in
Freeland, when referring to the recent spike in illegal trafficking.
“People are crawling out of the woodwork. A lot of illegal car haulers
are hauling without paperwork.”
If you are having your car hauled, Campbell said, “be sure your hulk
hauler is licensed.”
Washington State Patrol Trooper T.J. Giddings said a violator is issued
a gross misdemeanor infraction, which on average ends up costing the
violator about $200. He can also be prosecuted.
“Unlicensed wrecking yards are tied in with illegal hulk haulers,” said
Giddings, who is solely responsible for policing 8,500 square miles of
hauling and wrecking activity in Island, Whatcom, Skagit and Snohomish
counties.
Giddings said locally there is only a handful of licensed hulk haulers
and wrecking yards on record, including A-1 Towing, Christian’s Towing,
and Island Recycling in Freeland. All three take vehicles from
authorized hulk haulers, but they don’t buy them.
“We have a real strict policy” on accepting cars from hulk haulers,
said Tom Hopper, lead tow operator at A-1 Towing. “We require a clear
title or an affidavit authorized by the DMV (Department of Motor
Vehicles). If they don’t have any of that, forget it.”
“We don’t purchase vehicles as a rule,” added Hopper. “However, we’ve
had an increase in picking up vehicles for free. We used to charge for
that.”
Jessica Clark, shop attendant at Christian’s Towing, said about three
to four people a day call up asking if Christian’s buys vehicles. Clark
said Christian’s does not buy vehicles because of the paperwork
required.
“It really gets sticky” when a wrecking yard starts buying vehicles,
Clark said.
Although she did not recollect having had any personal dealings with
illegitimate hulk haulers, Clark’s heard that “there have been a lot of
people bringing in vehicles chopped up. Now, people think we owe them
money.”
Campbell said that it’s standard practice for his company to “get the
name, license number and hold it for ten days before we issue the
check” to sellers.
As a comparison, Budget Auto Wrecking in Kent, a legitimate wrecking
yard and hulk hauler that is the largest processor of vehicles in the
state, currently pays hulk haulers $180 a ton for cars with the proper
paperwork. When Budget is the hulk hauler, the price varies depending
on the distance.
Giddings, who is stationed off I-5 in Bow, knows, however, that
illegitimate hulk haulers sniff out the unlawful wrecking yards, so
they flock there to cash in their goods. Any illegitimate hulk haulers
in Island County who want the money usually end up going off-island to
get it.
“There are about 10 to 15 (illegal hulk haulers) that may be running in
each county,” said Giddings of his area of responsibility. “A good
majority are not properly insured. A lot of them have safety
violations.”
Dan Raichart, manager of Budget Auto Wrecking, said Illegal hulk
hauling “was a bad thing for a while. It’s trickled down now.”
However, two recent examples testify to how widespread illegal hulk
hauling has become.
“We held an emphasis on hulk haulers and scrap haulers on April 10 in
Sultan,” wrote Giddings in a recent email. “The emphasis lasted
approximately four hours and we stopped five vehicles hauling scrap
cars and parts. Of those five vehicles, four of them had violations.
There were approximately $1,800 in fines issued between three vehicles
with one driver booked and his vehicle impounded.”
The multiple violations ranged from load securement violations, no
proof of insurance, expired license plates, and one driver had a
$10,000 felony warrant and a suspended license.
In another recent email, WSP Trooper Doug Sackman contacted Giddings
about what he saw as “a high increase of vehicles hauling scrap metal
and hulk vehicles.”
In a two-day operation, Sackman made five stops in and around Snohomish
County.
“The main violations that almost all of these vehicles have in common
are load securement, debris, brake and lighting violations,” wrote
Sackman, “which from a safety stand point is the reason that we are
doing this. The frosting on the cake, if you will, is that we are
finding hulk violations and obviously stolen vehicles in this attempt
to make SR-2 safer for the motoring public.”
Giddings explained that despite the proliferation of illegal hulk
hauling and scrap processing, policing has proven difficult because of
the sheer square mileage he has to cover and because criminals falsify
documents that prove difficult to check.
“It’s very time-consuming because I have to keep track of 40 wrecking
yards and four scrap yards for four counties,” said Giddings.
Wrecking yards can be subjected to hefty fines if they are caught
dealing illegally. Giddings has issued these citations “three or four
times in the four counties” ranging from $17,000 to $50,000.
According to Giddings, one Bothell wrecking yard has seen illegal hulk
activity, but when contacted, the business refrained from commenting on
the matter.
In terms of hulk-hauler citations, Giddings has “turned in 15 different
civil infractions in the last four to six months.”
What’s most troubling to Giddings is that illegal hulk hauling is tied
in with other illegal activities.
“Illegal hulk haulers are involved in other activities,” said Giddings.
“About 50 to 75 percent are wanted for other things, including drug
violations.”
Metal
Objects Are Targets Of Thefts
By ANN MARIE SOMMA | Courant Staff Writer
July 7, 2008
Thieves have stolen everything from empty beer kegs and catalytic
converters to aluminum Little League bleachers and fountain fixtures —
basically anything made of metal that can be grabbed and carted off to
scrap metal yards.
Parishioners worshipping on Easter weekend at the All Hallows Church in
Plainfield learned first-hand just how brazen metal thieves can be: A
member of the congregation heard a noise, looked outside and saw a man
making off with a 30-foot length of copper gutter pipe that he'd taken
from a tower in front of the church.
"These people don't have any respect of the sacred. This building is
special, it is the Eucharist, the real presence of Jesus," said
Wojciech Kowalski, the pastor of All Hallows Church.
The price of copper, aluminum and bronze have risen so high that police
departments in the state have seen thieves cut off catalytic converters
from cars and rip off vacant homes for copper pipes.
The surge in thievery, which began about two years ago, is driven in
part by the rising demand for scrap metal in China, India and Russia.
Copper — the king of the base metals — is fetching about $2.80 a pound,
up from $1.50 a pound two years ago. The price of metals, mainly
copper, has risen in part due to the weak dollar and inflation. Even
though copper fell the most last week in more than a month as the
dollar and other currencies rebounded, it still remains high.
Neither public nor private property has been spared.In March, someone
stole 32 bronze nozzles and eight bronze light fixtures from a fountain
on the New Haven Green.
During the Memorial Day weekend, someone stole copper piping that
connected the outside air-conditioning unit at Waterbury's Silas
Bronson Library.
On Monday, Kevin Sperry arrived at work at the Stanley P. Rockwell Co.
in Hartford and noticed that a barrel with 200 pounds of copper was
missing from the commercial heat-treating company.
Over the weekend, industrious thieves had broken out a window at the
Homestead Avenue factory, entered the building and scooped out the
half-inch-tall pieces of copper with a pan and emptied them into a
barrel outside.
They had started to fill a garbage can with copper wiring they dumped
outside the window, but something or someone interrupted their labors.
"The thievery is out of control. The stealing is going on all over the
place in an out-of-control city," said Kevin Sperry, a co-owner of the
company.
Beer distributors are asking the state Liquor Control Commission for
help because empty beer kegs are routinely stolen from package stores
and restaurants and sold for scrap.
"It's a terrible problem," said Edward Crowley, president of DiChello
Distributors, a beer wholesaler in Orange. "Not only are we losing out,
the retailers are losing out on their deposits, [and] our employees are
losing commission to pick up the kegs. The only ones making out [are]
the people who are stealing them."
Many believe the thefts will continue unless the economy improves.
"As the economy gets worse, I guarantee this crime will get worse,"
said Wethersfield Police Chief James Cetran, whose department arrested,
earlier this year, a man who stole two aluminum loading docks from the
Bed Bath & Beyond on the Silas Deane Highway.
State Sen. Thomas Colapietro championed legislation that takes effect
in October that fines scrap metal and junkyard dealers up to $500,000
for buying stolen metals and historical artifacts.
The penalty is part of an existing law that requires scrap dealers to
take down license plates of anyone bringing in metal to sell, and to
record what they brought.
"People will steal it as long as they have a place to sell it,"
Colapietro said.
Joseph Miller, who runs Miller Recycling Corp. in Hartford, said he
complies with existing law and takes down license plates of sellers.
He said he has cooperated with police and turned over his receipt
books, but trying to determine what is stolen is difficult.
"You can't accuse somebody of being a crook just because the stuff
looks stolen," Miller said.
Miller said only in rare situations has he turned down stuff because he
thought it was stolen.
"Scrap is not like someone stealing a car with a VIN number. It's hard
to determine if it's stolen. It's scrap, it could be new and still be
scrap," Miller said.
In the Metal
Recycling Business, It’s Loud, Dirty and Suddenly Lucrative
NYTIMES
By ANN FARMER
Published: June 27, 2008
Bob Rommeney steered his flatbed truck into a scrap-metal recycling
plant in Brooklyn and unloaded two battered cars that had been wrecked
days earlier at Riverhead Raceway on Long Island.
Within hours, the discarded vehicles would have their wheels removed,
their fluids drained and their bodies crushed into 3-by-4-foot squares.
Mr. Rommeney, 54, a retired city sanitation worker, would return home
to Maspeth, Queens, about $400 richer.
“It’s worth it to come here and scrap the cars,” he said the other day,
waiting his turn in the yard to drive his flatbed onto a large scale.
There, workers compared its weight with what it weighed when it arrived
at the yard, which is owned by A.R.C. Metal Recycling, to determine how
much he should be paid. “Three years ago, I would have gotten about $50
a car,” Mr. Rommeney said. “The money went up.”
It is a very good time for anyone involved in the scrap-metal business.
People who collect scrap metal and take it to recycling facilities are
getting higher rates for their deliveries.
In turn, metal-recycling companies are selling more scrap metal,
particularly to customers in China, India and other developing nations,
who are paying record prices. A.R.C. Metal Recycling has recently been
selling its scrap steel for close to $500 a ton, more than double the
price it received a year ago.
“It’s booming, and it’s still growing,” said Michael Allocco, 24, the
general manager of the A.R.C. recycling plant, one of 68 scrap metal
processing firms licensed by the New York City Department of Consumer
Affairs. The number of these businesses has grown nearly 20 percent in
three years.
But the increase in the price of scrap metal has led to a rise in the
theft of metal products, particularly anything made of copper. Mr.
Allocco said he is vigilant about trying to ensure that none of the
metal that is brought to his plant was stolen.
“I don’t accept the shopping-cart guys,” he said, adding that the
police had visited the plant with photographs of people suspected of
stealing metal, asking if anyone had seen them.
Mr. Allocco takes precautions like photographing his customers and
keeping their driver’s licenses on file. “I try to keep the place on
the up and up.”
Mr. Allocco’s plant is located in an industrial part of the Greenpoint
neighborhood, alongside Newtown Creek and across the street from a new
sewage treatment plant, whose bulbous towers add to a surreal
landscape. Allocco Recycling, a transfer station for dirt, concrete and
other types of fill, was founded by Mr. Allocco’s father on the
two-and-a-half-acre site 20 years ago.
A.R.C., which is open 24 hours, buys hundreds of tons of ferrous metal
a day. A large portion of it is steel.
At the plant, some of the oversize metal is fed to a huge hydraulic
shearer resembling a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Its mighty jaws rear up and rip
bulky metal items to pieces.
The arm of a heavy-duty material handler also routinely sweeps across
the yard. Its enormous clawlike grapples release squirming loads of
twisted metal onto a pile that rises 40 feet while awaiting compacting.
The company also buys thousands of pounds of nonferrous metal daily,
which is placed in a warehouse, where a mound of brass car radiators
sits alongside a collection of sinks, stacks of aluminum window frames
and buckets of copper wiring.
“Nonferrous is worth more,” said Bill Monteleone, A.R.C.’s director of
sales. He explained how customers are paid based on the type of metal
they sell and whether they have separated the metals.
“The more you fine-tune it, the more you separate, the more money you
get,” said Kevin Westhall, 39, who runs a small business removing items
from the homes of people who have died. He strips the insulation from
old copper wiring and he pries the nonferrous metal out of washing
machines.
Separating the metal is hard work, said Mr. Westhall, who makes as many
as five trips a day to the recycling yard. “I walk around like a
magnet,” he said. “Metal is always on my mind.”
A.R.C. has more than 500 customers that sell to it regularly, including
manufacturers, private sanitation and rubbish removal companies and
major demolition contractors.
Among the items that have landed in the plant’s heap are miles of the
metal bridge decking that made up the former left lane of the
Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. It was deposited by the construction
contractor who is rehabilitating that stretch of the highway.
The company also attracts smaller-scale customers, like Johnny Slavos,
23, whose ponytail dripped with sweat the other day as he unloaded a
100-pound Cadillac engine that he said he had picked up at a junkyard.
He would not say anything more about where he collects scrap metal.
“I can’t tell you my secrets,” he said, explaining that he worried that
others might elbow in on his turf. “It’s like the old gold rush.”
Alfred Tiscani, a longtime employee of A.R.C., said he is constantly
amused by the variety of things that people bring in, displaying, for
example, an ornate tin lamp that he was saving for his wife.
“When I see old cars, I feel bad,” he said, recalling the time someone
brought in an antique B Model Mack Truck like the one his grandfather
drove.
Nobody at the yard knows what happens to any of the scrap metal after
it leaves the site. “Metal has no memory,” Mr. Monteleone said, looking
down at the pen in his hand. “It could be made into this pen tip.”
Oil speculation could wipe out
pensions; Investments in crude oil are
producing phenomenal results now, but an about-face holds the potential
for disaster
DAY
By Matthew Perrone
Published on 6/28/2008
Washington - All those speculators getting the blame for driving up the
price of oil these days - just who are they? For part of the answer,
look in the mirror.
The retirement savings of workers across the country, entrusted to
pension fund managers, are being plowed into one of the few investments
that has delivered phenomenal returns in recent years. For
decades, futures contracts were mostly traded by commodity producers
and the people who used the actual products, such as crude oil, corn
and soybeans. Agreeing to a price today for a commodity to be delivered
in, say, two months is a way to smooth out price fluctuations for those
supplies.
But large investors faced with the threat of inflation have
increasingly used them as protection against the falling dollar. That
includes pension funds, along with investment banks, mutual funds and
private hedge funds. Research firm Ennis Knupp and Associates
says $139 billion had been funneled into energy commodites, primarily
crude oil, by the end of March - and it estimates more than half of
that is from retirement money.
The investments have paid off. The Standard & Poor's GSCI index,
which tracks a basket of commodities, is up 19 percent in the past five
years, compared with just 9 percent for the S&P 500 stock index.
The risk is that if the remarkable run in oil and other futures markets
reverses course, billions of dollars of retirement benefits could be
wiped out.
”A pension fund is supposed to be investing money in secure, stable
investments for the benefit of the people whose money they are
investing,” said Dan Lippe, an energy analyst at Houston-based Petral
Consulting Inc. “When we hit that wall and things start falling, they
will fall very fast, and the pension funds that invested in commodities
will see a tremendous loss of value.”
The retirement system for public employees in California, the largest
in the nation, has $1.3 billion invested in commodities. Most of it
tracks the S&P commodity index. That's still just one-half of
1 percent of the fund's total $240 billion in assets, said Michael
Schlachter, who advises the California pension fund. He said a collapse
in oil or other commodity prices would have little effect on retirees.
Still, a growing chorus of experts is convinced retirement investments
are enough to distort prices. Billionaire George Soros, the
airline industry and the International Monetary Fund are all pressuring
Congress to curb speculation by large investors. Democrats in Congress
say they hope to vote on restrictions by August.
”Your pension fund manager may be using your retirement money to drive
up the price of oil,” said Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., at a hearing
earlier this week on speculation in commodities. “What would happen if
pension fund managers decided to increase their commodity investment by
another 20-fold?”
Speculators put money into commodity markets simply to make money on
their investments - unlike commercial investors, who are actually
buying or selling orders for physical goods. Energy analysts say
it's unclear what effect speculators have had on oil prices, which
climbed briefly to a new record above $142 on Friday before falling
back.
But Stupak and other lawmakers have already dashed off more than a
dozen proposals to rein in commodity trading, including limiting how
many contracts speculators can hold and closing loopholes that allow
them to skirt regulations.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., proposed banning pension funds and other
large investors from commodities altogether. He dropped the idea after
vigorous opposition by an association of public and private pension
funds.
Schlachter, who is also managing director for investment consulting
firm Wilshire Associates, called the idea “horrendously bad.” He said
pension funds should not be compared to Wall Street speculators, who
assume huge risks every day to maximize returns.
”The pension plans we work with are using commodities only as a
long-term hedge against inflation,” he said.
Unlike the stock market, where there are a limited number of shares for
each company, futures markets have no limits on contracts available. As
long as a buyer can find a seller for each contract, investment
opportunities are virtually unlimited. Critics say retirement
funds that accumulate contracts are artificially driving up commodity
prices. In the case of oil, that means higher gas prices and more
expensive food and other goods.
”If they're going to be in the futures market they need to trade rather
than take this buy and hold strategy,” said Michael Masters, portfolio
manager of hedge fund Masters Capital Management. “That is the worst
possible thing for the futures market.”
Masters and other experts told members of Congress this week that
eliminating excessive speculation could drive oil prices down to about
$65 a barrel, less than half the current price. Retirement funds
have suffered at the hands of the market before. In 2002, when the
stock market swooned after the dot-com crash and 9/11, retirement
assets dropped $7 billion, losing 8 percent of their value.