AUTOMOTIVE
35recyclinginternational.com | May/June | 2020
thrive when the crisis is over. ‘If we
look back at the time directly follow-
ing the great depression, what stands
out is that there was a whole genera-
tion of frugal consumers. People
wanted to save money, not spend too
much. It’s likely that people’s attitude
towards consumerism post-Covid-19
will echo those sentiments.
‘When the dust settles, people won’t
want to spend US$ 50 000 on the lat-
est truck or get thousands of dollars
worth of brand-new auto parts. This
could cause a surge in recycled parts
sales,’ Robertson predicts. ‘They’ll
hold on to their own vehicles, fix them
up, and build up some savings –
they’ll be fine getting scrap parts.
‘We can be our own worst enemy,’
Daglis admits. ‘Some people don’t
even clean the parts before shipping
them off. I’ve seen engines covered in
grime. That’s one way of ruining a first
impression, let me tell you.’
He recalls the early days, getting
started with eBay in 2008. ‘We put
two engines up for sale: one that had
driven many miles and we made it
look beautiful; another that was barely
used but was dirty. In auction, the
clean one sold at twice the price we
had expected. It even created a little
bit of a bidding war,’ Daglis says with
a grin. ‘But the dirty one… it just sat
there. In hindsight, that was a test
case for us. It makes sense, though,
doesn’t it? It matches how we act as
consumers every day. We scrutinise
how a product looks before even con-
sidering buying it. People buy with
their eyes.’
when the dust settles
The question on everyone’s lips is:
what will the future hold? Robertson is
confident that auto recycling will
‘This tidal wave hit a lot of people
with not much extra money in the
bank. They’ll remember that. That’s
why I think our industry will come out
of this in much better shape than it
was going in.’
stronger together
Counselman agrees that historic
trends show business in scrap will ‘sky
rocket’. ‘We saw the same in 2008-09
when the economic slump snuck up
on us. And I remember stories from
my father telling me how business
soared in the early eighties, when the
US was battling a depression,’ he
says. ‘Sales were astronomical. He
made money hand over fist. I think we
will make record sales. We need to be
ready.’
‘Who knows when we will come out of
the fog?’ Butler muses. ‘When we do,
I’m confident we’ll still have plenty to do.
Our industry thrives when things are
rough, when people are no longer on
auto-pilot. Uncertainty demands we
become more intuitive, more innovative.’
But he adds, ‘Let’s be fair, we’re not
there yet. The only way we’ll make it
through is by uniting,’ Robertson
agrees, ‘We have to keep paying each
other – dismantlers, recyclers, parts
traders – everyone in the chain. We
must support each other and keep the
cash flow alive. We are stronger
together.’
With production of factories in China significantly down, original parts are very hard to come buy at the moment.
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