Crosscurrents in non-residential construction Part 2: Dodge data
Parsing out conflicting construction data from the census, Dodge and other sources to see where the market may be headed.
Category: Pulse
LME contangoes: Why they may or may not matter
Volatile LME spreads may not directly dictate physical aluminum prices, but with tight inventories, rising Midwest premiums, and traders creating "artificial contangoes", financing costs are increasingly being pushed into the physical market.
Crosscurrents in non-residential construction Part 1: Spending, billings, backlog
Conflicting reads across census spending, backlog surveys, and Dodge planning data point to a construction market where commercial may be nearing a floor, infrastructure remains buoyed by long pipelines, and heavy industrial lags.
Secondary aluminum casthouses: Time for a rethink?
The widening gap between scrap costs and value-added premiums is making secondary aluminum casthouses look far more attractive - time for a rethink.
Fulton acquires AFCO as Metra builds cross-border extrusion platform
Private equity-backed moves by Fulton Asset Management and KPS Capital Partners highlight how consolidation is reshaping North American extrusion capacity, with strategies aimed squarely at construction and industrial end markets.
Labor standoff at Pace's Pennsylvania die-casting plants
The standoff at Pace Industries' Pennsylvania operations offers a snapshot of its Loyalhanna plant and how they fit into Pace's wider aluminum network.
LKQ sells its self-service business
LKQ Corp.'s decision to sell its Self Service segment may look like a minor portfolio shift, but it strikes at the heart of the U.S. auto dismantling systems that feeds into the zorba supply chain.
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Container rates continue to fall
Container freight rates keep sliding for a tenth straight week, with looming U.S. tariffs on Chinese vessels and rerouted Gulf shipments reshaping global trade costs.
The state of primary aluminum inventories in the U.S.
They're low. This is what's going on.