I don’t see clear, strong indicators from Ohio and Pennsylvania data that metal reprocessing took a huge dive there over the past four years.

But that’s only using second-quarter (April-June) data, and it only looks at two states.

When I back up and look more broadly, I see something else. Here’s data on primary metal repurposing for the entire country, using every available quarter:

Holy smokes. There’s a big seasonal component to establishments but, if you look, it does appear the number of firms is nosediving. Then, take a look at the number of employees at those firms. Wow … what’s going on? The number tanks.

I’ll need to look into this a lot, lot closer. Maybe I’ll examine employment for every month and check the numbers against secondary metal repurposing firms. Then maybe I’ll call the specialist at the Bureau of Economic Analysis who deals with this stuff. But that last graph looks wild.