Abstract
•Case examines joint products & relevant costs of a scrap metal processor.•Requires contribution & reservation price calculations.•Requires a sensitivity analysis of commodity prices to support the analysis.•Examines global economic forces.•Introduces scrap metal recycling as a component of sustainability.
The purpose of the Atlas managerial accounting case is to apply managerial accounting, economic, and international business concepts. Atlas Scrap Metal produces the joint products of steel and mixed non-ferrous material, which includes the non-ferrous metals of aluminum, copper and zinc. Atlas currently sells containers of the mixed non-ferrous material to other processors to be sorted into pure metals. The processors bid on the containers of mixed non-ferrous material based on local spot prices for the sorted non-ferrous metals, as well as on their sorting costs, which vary geographically depending on local labor and automation costs. The case requires an analysis of the costs and revenues that are relevant to the company’s decision to continue to sell mixed non-ferrous material to other processors, or to vertically integrate and process the non-ferrous metals inhouse. You are required to support the recommendations quantitatively with calculated contribution margins and by considering a revenue sensitivity analysis on commodity prices for the non-ferrous metals. The Atlas case was inspired by Adam Minter, 2013 book, Junkyard Planet.