Titanium scrap turmoil may be over, or not

Nov 07, 2007 | 09:49 AM | Frank Haflich

The titanium scrap market should begin to stabilize in 2008 after this year's turmoil, a leading scrap executive predicted. But among titanium consumers, the jury is still out.

"I believe the worst of the turbulence is behind us," Jerry Faitelson, vice president of Goldman Titanium Co., Buffalo, N.Y., told members of the International Titanium Association in Orlando, Fla., recently, citing a "crash in scrap prices that caught many of us in the industry by surprise." He emphasized that the surprise wasn't so much that prices declined, but rather, "how fast and how far they fell."

Faitelson stayed away from citing prices, but industry sources agreed the decline has been precipitous. Chips have fallen to a range of $2 to $3 per pound from a peak as high as $8 to $9 per pound last year, with some offers for unprepared material less than $2 per pound, sources said. Bulk weldables in prepared form are $7 to $8 per pound, down from $18 to $19 per pound last year, but unprepared material has been reported as low as $5 per pound.....