November, 2023- Guest Editorial: Red metals organizations team up for conference, data gathering and perhaps more
It has been over 18 months since the Copper and Brass Servicenter Association (CBSA) rebranded as the Copper and Brass Supply Chain Association (CBSCA). It was at our April 2022 conference when we announced the name change and focus, and it has been a wild success.
The board presented the name change, the concept behind it, and solicited members’ thoughts on the organization’s new direction. They wanted input and asked members to speak up if they felt the focus was wrong.
At the same time, CBSCA revised its membership categories. Previously, they were: service centers, fabricators, service center/ fabricators, mills and platers, depending on the business mix for each member. It was a bit complicated. With the name change, the association switched to a Provider category and all memberships fell under that heading. We went further upstream and added others in the red metals supply chain, such as scrap dealers.
Membership feedback gleaned during the convention was used to further refine the vision. Even past members came to that convention to provide input. It was a town hall-style open forum. There were also additional questions, such as should we bring end-use customers into CBSCA. Members said no and the board agreed.
As a result of the changes put through since these decisions were finalized, we have seen an influx of past members returning and new members joining CBSCA.
MEETINGS DEVELOPMENTS
The CBSCA Annual Convention was canceled two years in a row due to the pandemic. In 2021, the board decided to create a new fall event: the Red Metals Summit (RMS). Unlike the convention, which is held during spring at resort-type locations, the RMS is a fly in/fly out business-focused meeting. The first was held in autumn 2021 and focused on supply chain issues the red metals industry faced. The timing of that event also coincided with CBSCA members’ budgeting cycles, and the event featured CBSCA’s chief economist, Connor Lokar of ITR Economics, who delivered an economic forecast for the coming year.
CBSCA now hosts both the annual convention and the Red Metals Summit each year.
Earlier this year, CBSCA leaders talked with the Copper Development Association (CDA), which saw potential for collaboration between the CDA Winter Meeting and the CBSCA Red Metals Summit. So, this year, we moved the Red Metals Summit from October to Dec. 3-7 and are co-locating with CDA’s Winter Meeting in Nashville. The Red Metals Summit schedule will look much the same, but on the second day, CDA members will join CBSCA members for a shared day of speakers and industry roundtable discussions. The RMS starts with a board meeting, followed by guest speaker presentations. Then, CBSCA and CDA members both attend sessions for the next day and a half. At the end of the second day, CBSCA and CDA members will gather for a joint reception. On the third day, CDA launches its Winter Meeting and council meetings. We are coining this as “Bringing the copper value chain together.” It’s exciting. We are seeing increased attendance at the Red Metals Summit. And, we see this next meeting as the beginning of a stronger partnership between the two associations. It is a great experiment and, if it works, we hope it will happen again. There is great energy around the event.
MARKET METRICS
CBSCA is also testing the waters this year regarding CDA’s data reporting program. The CDA has an excellent data reporting program and collects data from its mill members and reports activity by end use market. One of the end user markets is distribution, which is a blind spot for them, as it is not clear where the product goes after it leaves distribution. That is a large part of what CBSCA represents. We have begun surveying our members in terms of what information they might be able to provide for this data collection program. Can they break down business activity by SIC codes? It is possible, as soon as 2024, that CBSCA can fill in the gaps for CDA’s reporting on distribution. That would be another strong part of the developing relationship. CBSCA was publishing monthly shipping reports until 2020. Part of the challenge was that service centers perform a lot of value- added processes with the products, and some moved further beyond that to full fabrication services. Then it became more complex to codify the data. We worried about double counting data from different points of in-process order fulfillment.
VALUE PROPOSITION
We hope the new data collection project with CDA could be valuable for producers and distributors, as well as end markets. We want to gather more information about what happens downstream with the products our members process and sell. We want to know what the customer is doing. That would be of value to everyone. It may take some time to get there, but it will be worth the process. Any time that associations can bring market players closer together, that creates value. Starting with co-location of the Red Metals Summit and the Copper Development Association’s Winter Meeting, we see a great first step. It brings the parts of the value chain together and prompts greater conversations.
CBSCA, 913/396-0697, http://copper-brass.org/
