The Company's inventories primarily consist of ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metals, and are valued at the lower of average purchased cost or net realizable value ("NRV") based on the specific scrap commodity. See Impact of Recently Issued Accounting Standards at the end of Note 1. Quantities of inventories are determined based on the Company's inventory systems and are subject to periodic physical verification using estimation techniques including observation, weighing and other industry methods. The Company recognizes inventory impairment and related adjustments when the NRV, based upon current market pricing, falls below recorded value or when the estimated volume is less than the recorded volume of the inventory. The Company records the loss in cost of sales in the period during which the loss is identified.

Certain assumptions are made regarding future demand and net realizable value in order to assess whether inventory is properly recorded at the lower of cost or NRV. Assumptions are based on historical experience, current market conditions and remaining costs of processing (if any) and disposal. If the anticipated future selling prices of scrap metal and finished steel products should decline, the Company would re-assess the recorded NRV of the inventory and make any adjustments believed necessary in order to reduce the value of the inventory (and increase cost of sales) to the lower of cost or NRV.

The Company did not have a lower of cost-or-NRV inventory write-down in the three month period ended March 31, 2017.

Some commodities are in saleable condition at acquisition. The Company purchases these commodities in small amounts until it has a truckload of material available for shipment. Some commodities are not in saleable condition at acquisition. These commodities must be shredded, torched or baled. ISA does not have work-in-process inventory that needs to be manufactured to become finished goods. The Company includes processing costs in inventory for all commodities by weight.

Inventories for ferrous and non-ferrous materials as of March 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016 consist of the following:


	March 31, 2017
	(unaudited)		December 31, 2016
	(in thousands)
Raw materials	$	2,730	$	2,222
Finished goods	633		805
Processing costs	500		410
Total inventories for sale	$	3,863	$	3,437