Steel Prices (a lesson in adversity):

With the recent economic slowdown, there are beginning to be adverse effects in the salvage steel industry. For the past couple of years, I have been researching ways that idonate.com can process junk vehicles and come out with enough proceeds to truly benefit the charities that we serve. Until recently, junk cars could bring an average of $200 a piece just from the parts and steel value. When the economic slowdown began, steel prices plummeted, going from around $300 per ton to its current level of $50 per ton. No businesses are buying steel and there is a tremendous strain on the entire scrap steel industry.
I was recently visiting with one of our junk car buyers, End of Life Vehicles. My contact is Paul Coon. Paul was saying there are advantages to this slowdown. When steel went up to $300 per ton, hundreds of fly-by-night junk car buyers came out of the woodwork. Some even bought a tow truck just to take advantage to make a quick buck, often picking up the junk cars for free and then quickly selling them at a tremendous profit. With the $50 per ton price, these fly-by-nighters are quickly going by the wayside because they can’t even pay for their fuel with the sale of the junk cars.
I guess that we as Christians can take away the same thing as we struggle to make ends meet or struggle to understand the political turmoil in our country. When we survive the crisis, we are much stronger in the battle. I truly believe effective military units are not really effective until they have gone through difficult battles, Once they are battle tested, they are much, much stronger! Let us learn from adversity. Since we can’t do anything about it, we can learn from the steel industry.