Ritchie Bros. August Market Trends Report shows declining excavator and truck pricing in the U.S.
Texas-based equipment auction firm Ritchie Bros. says its tracking indicates median prices for large excavators in the United States are down 9 percent year over year while mini excavator prices declined 5 percent in the last 90 days.
The overall Ritchie Bros. individual mix-adjusted industry indexes are still up over 2021, says the firm, but they are declining on a month-to-month basis since peak pricing achieved earlier this year. In the U.S., truck tractor pricing still leads the way, up 27 percent year over year, while vocational trucks, medium, and large earthmoving prices are up 18 percent, 15 percent and 12 percent respectively.
Meanwhile, in Canada, the same August Market Trends Report tells a different story, with large excavator prices there up 12 percent year over while mini-excavator prices in the last 90 days have increased 31 percent. Truck tractor pricing is up 25 percent, while vocational trucks, medium, and large earthmoving came in with 10 percent, 13 percent and 12 percent gains.
“We continue to experience year-over-year price inflation for equipment and trucks in the U.S. and Canada,” says Doug Olive, a senior vice president with Ritchie Bros. “However, as the transportation and logistics markets normalize, we have seen truck prices decline. We are seeing similar pricing trends across our other industry indexes as well, with year-over-year increases, but declining on a month-to-month basis.”
Comments Doug Rusch, managing director of sister company Rouse Sales, “Tight supply continues to be the story in the retail market, with lower-than-typical sales volumes driving strong pricing and retail values increasing 2 percent in July. Auction values for excavators have moderated a bit since June 2022. Since then, we have seen smaller class mini-excavator prices decline 6 percent to 7 percent at auction, while larger excavators have declined 2 percent.”
Troy Steele brings 16 years of experience in equipment sales.
Brokk Inc., a Monroe, Washington-based manufacturer of remote-controlled demolition machines, is growing its business in Canada and recently named Troy Steele regional sales manager for the western region of the country.
Steele has 16 years of experience in equipment sales and will serve Brokk customers across all industries, including demolition, construction, mining, cement, metal processing and tunneling. He will also serve Aquajet Hydrodemolition customers in western Canada.
“The time is right to expand the Brokk and Aquajet team in Canada, and Troy has the experience to hit the ground running. With his previous work in cutting, coring and demolition, he provides strong insight to help contractors and plants find solutions to their most pressing challenges,” says Lars Lindgren, president of Brokk. “He also brings great energy to his position with his passion for being out in the field and working hands-on with customers.”
Before joining Brokk, Steele served as national sales manager for Cyclone Diamond Products, where he was responsible for all sales and leading the sales team in Canada. His other past positions include manager of business development for Champion Group, district manager for Wacker Neuson and account manager for Hilti Canada.
“Brokk is the leader in demolition robots, and I’m proud to be part of the team. It’s great to be able to provide assistance to clients in familiar industries,” Steele says. “We work hard to bring creative, innovative solutions to a variety of industries. I’m looking forward to promoting efficiency and safety on the jobsite for contractors throughout the area.”
Steele earned a bachelor’s in business administration with a finance and economics concentration from University College of Cape Breton. He lives in Calgary, Alberta.
Momentum of Western New York, a recently launched recycling company, anticipates the facility will be fully operational in the third quarter of 2023.
Momentum of Western New York, a recently launched recycling company, has announced plans to develop a $3.3 million material recovery facility in Steuben County, New York, that will specialize in windmill blade recycling.
As reported by The Evening Tribune, Momentum will be taking over the windmill recycling operation of T&R Environmental—a sister company based in Bath, New York. According to Momentum Owner Brian Polmateer, the company’s recycling operation “will make the industry more environmentally sustainable and help reduce space shortages in landfills.”
“Even here in Stueben County, we’re going to hit a cap very quickly,” he told The Evening Tribune. “We routinely receive phone calls from other states and local manufacturers that they have zero landfill [space]. We could see a serious need for recycling [and] waste minimization.”
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Momentum is currently working with the state Department of Environmental Conservation to obtain a Part 360 permit, which governs solid waste management. Permitted waste streams at the facility will include nonhazardous liquids, sludges, soils and solids, as well as nonhazardous absorbents. The facility will not be permitted to accept hazardous wastes.
“It’s essentially being brought in, processed in different variations and then shipped back out,” says Polmanteer.
“It sounds like we might be one of the first ones in the country to write policy and protocol for windmill blades,” he adds.
Construction is expected to start in October, reports The Evening Tribune, and Momentum anticipates the new facility will be fully operational in the third quarter of 2023, likely by September. Three jobs at T&R Environmental are being reallocated to Momentum, which is also hiring for 12 new positions.
Momentum has an agreement under consideration with the Steuben County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) for tax incentives to aid the project. The agreement will be subject to a public hearing before the IDA votes on final approval later this month.
“It’s exciting to work with a company that is on the cutting edge of this technology,” IDA Executive Director Jamie Johnson told The Evening Tribune. “We’re hopeful as the technology and company evolve, they’ll continue to grow in our community.”
The BNEF research arm of Bloomberg sees EV and alternative energy demands straining nonferrous metal supplies.
Two reports produced by the BloombergNEF (BNEF) research business unit of that global company point to nonferrous metal markets destined to be short of supply for the next decade or more.
Although mining capacity is a key focus of the report on copper and a second one on battery metals (cobalt, lithium and nickel), the forecast points to ongoing high prices for recyclers and continued investment in nonferrous metals recycling capacity.
A mid-August Bloomberg summary of the copper report starts off by stating, “The world may have to rely on new recycling technologies to prevent shortages of copper as the shift toward clean energy supercharges demand for the wiring metal.”
The report says Sung Choi and fellow analysts at BNEF are forecasting annual copper demand as being “set to expand 53 percent to 2040, mainly driven by the electrification of transport and infrastructure.”
On the supply side, the BNEF analysts say primary supply might increase just 16 percent thanks to the difficulty of expanding existing copper mines or creating new ones. Narrowing a projected shortfall of from 5 million to 14 million metric tons by 2040 mgiht be a lot to ask of recyclers.
However, access to the red metal already could be driving increased investments in copper recycling in nations with developed economies. Recycled-content copper investments underway in the United States include those by Igneo Technologies LLC in Savannah, Georgia; the Aurubis AG facility in Augusta, Georgia; a plant in Shelbyville, Kentucky, being built by the Wieland Group; and the Ames Copper recycled-content anode plant in Shelby, North Carolina.
Bloomberg quotes the BNEF analysts as writing, “Investing in technologies related to recycling, lowering costs and improving recovery rates from low-grade deposits could help bring new copper supply online to meet growing demand.”
On its website, BNEF also hosts a late July blog post titled, “Race to Net Zero: The Pressures of the Battery Boom in Five Charts.” As with copper, BNEF points to “soaring demand [that] comes up against supply constraints” for battery metals including cobalt, lithium, manganese and nickel. “Lithium, nickel and manganese could all see technical supply deficits this year."
BNEF adds, “Raw materials availability is the biggest constraint for the production of lithium carbonate and hydroxide [and] the lithium industry could struggle to meet growing demand from electric vehicles (EVs) unless new projects are ramped up quickly over the next two years."
Harvesting lithium from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries has been one of the most active investment sectors for several years. One recent investment in the sector in Kentucky entails $310 million initially, with the potential to grow to $1 billion.
The analysts also say if cobalt is a bottleneck, nickel could be eyed as a substitute material. “Cobalt use in lithium-ion batteries has evolved over the last three years as a result of the higher prices recorded in 2018 and the ethical concerns automakers have around supply from artisanal miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” says Kwasi Ampofo of BNEF. “These concerns have resulted in a shift to less cobalt-intensive battery chemistries or those without cobalt.”
That, too, would likely require recycling investments, as most nickel currently goes into stainless steel and is recycled back to stainless steel at mills around the world. Nevada-based Aqua Metals is among several companies piloting technology to make nickel sulfate from spent batteries.
While not mentioning recycling specifically in the blog post, BNEF writes, “As demand for EV batteries grows, countries are racing to become more self-sufficient and build their own domestic supply chains.”
Scrap recycling firm acquires Saginaw, Michigan-based B. Clinkston & Sons.
Holland, Michigan-based Padnos has announced the acquisition of Saginaw, Michigan-based B. Clinkston & Sons Inc., saying the move will expand its recycling footprint in the Wolverine State.
The Padnos organization describes B. Clinkston & Sons as a third-generation family-owned company that was founded in 1915. The acquiring company was founded in Holland in 1905 by Louis Padnos and now has 26 locations in Michigan and Indiana.
“The work that Steve Clinkston has done to build on the legacy of his family’s business is admirable,” says Jonathan Padnos, Padnod president and CEO. “Clinkston is a highly reputable scrap business and a pillar in the Saginaw community. We are proud to join forces and continue the positive impact in the Tri-Cities area. This move furthers our regional consolidation and is the next step in our growth strategy.”
The fourth-generation, family-owned Padnos company recycles ferrous and nonferrous metals, end-of-life vehicles, paper, plastics and electronics.