Australasia

The year has started with a warmer tone. The market is up and, now that companies have returned to work, the flow of recycled raw materials has begun reasonably well. Feedback from metal merchants suggests they are generally optimistic about the year ahead; a further encouraging sign is that domestic and traditional offshore consumers are buying at current levels.

While inflationary pressure has not hit targets in New Zealand, further rate cuts are generally considered plausible next month. Coupled with favourable export conditions, this will help manufacturing and improve volumes into yards. Manufacturing in Australia has also started the year on a positive footing, with reasonable volumes of material flowing into metal merchants’ yards.

Across both countries, January is traditionally quieter than December; the same applies this year too but the early weeks of the year have still been positive.