Scrap prices are by no means going through the roof, but recent market stability was apparently enough to lure scrap recyclers to Las Vegas for the 2000 convention of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI). A record number of attendees and sold out exhibition space were among the positive signals sent at the ISRI 2000 convention. Crowded session rooms and cocktail receptions served as gathering spots for attendees, as did the hallways, bistros and bar rooms of the Bellagio hotel.
Despite the distractions offered by the sunny weather and entertainment venues of Las Vegas, the convention hall also maintained the interest of attendees, as an array of Internet companies joined the traditional ranks of equipment and service suppliers exhibiting at the show.
A LARGE GATHERING
Credit the lights of Las Vegas or the relative health of the scrap markets, but a record number of attendees registered for the convention. It might not be accurate to say that attendance records were shattered—the 3,283 registrations were exactly one more than for the 1998 convention in San Francisco—but the record was broken nonetheless.
“This year’s show was the most successful in ISRI’s history, and I expect next year’s to be even more exciting,” says show manager Bill Baker of William Baker & Associates Ltd., Elmhurst, Ill.
ISRI also says the 160 companies exhibiting marked a new record. Exhibitors seemed pleased with the amount of traffic on the show floor, and have expressed some of that satisfaction with a 40% advanced renewal rate for next year’s ISRI annual convention in San Antonio.
DOT.COM MANIA
Among the exhibitors with a sizable presence this year were several dot.com or e-commerce companies with services for the scrap industry.
ISRI itself set up a “Cyber View Café” at the Bellagio so attendees could log onto the Internet.
And while software companies are not new to the scrap industry or to ISRI conventions, 2000 marked a watershed year in terms of companies attempting to convince scrap recyclers to shift more of their business to the Internet. Among the companies exhibiting:
Several of the exhibiting companies timed news announcements to coordinate with the ISRI convention, including the launching of Scrapsite.net by steel products e-commerce site Metalsite.net.
The ScrapSite launch was announced as a three-way agreement between Metalsite.net, and two scrap recycling companies: Metal Management Inc., Chicago, and Philip Services Corp., Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
“Metal Management analyzed every alternative for participation in the B-to-B (business-to-business) market for scrap metal,” says Al Cozzi, chairman and CEO of the scrap company. “It did not take us long to realize that partnering with MetalSite would be the most effective way to rapidly become transactional in a B-to-B medium that will have the support needed for our ferrous and nonferrous customers.”
Philip Metals division president Fred Smith expresses similar optimism regarding the ScrapSite partnership. “We believe that ScrapSite will help take costs out of the supply chain and help our customers to be more competitive.”
MetTrade.com debuted at the ISRI convention, announcing a focus on nonferrous metals trading. “I’ve been in the nonferrous trade for over 27 years, and I feel it’s time the participants in this business have an opportunity to utilize the benefits of the Internet,” says Arthur Mendoza, president of MetTrade.com.
On the opening day of the show, fibermarket.com announced an agreement with software provider Oracle Corp., Redwood Shores, Calif., to create fp-xchange, which is being defined as “an open electronic marketplace for the global forest products industry, which includes paper, pulp, recovered fiber, solid wood and related building products.” The two companies “plan to re-launch and re-brand the current fiber-market.com website under the fp-xchange brand, to be powered by Oracle Exchange, Oracle’s online e-business marketplace,” a fibermarket.com news release states.
An announcement released just 10 days later indicated that fp-xchange will be going head-to-head with another Internet site being created by three of the paper industry’s largest companies: Georgia-Pacific Corp., International Paper and Weyerhaeuser Co. The companies have jointly announced they are cooperating to create an as yet unnamed “electronic marketplace” that will provide “both procurement and sales functions” and “streamline purchasing operations, reduce inventories, cut internal costs and increase capital efficiency in the industry.”
BACK IN THE REAL WORLD
The dot.com companies were not the only ones making news in Las Vegas, as equipment companies and other industry suppliers also made announcements timed for the ISRI convention.
Long-time shredder castings maker Riverside Products, Moline, Ill., announced the formation of the Riverside Shredders division, which will “supply a family of technologically-advanced, competitively-priced shredders to the North American scrap metal recycling marketplace.”
Riverside is working in partnership with Osborn Engineering, Tulsa, Okla., and Lynxs Shredder Technology Ltd., Chesterfield, England, to design, manufacture, sell and install the shredder plants. The shredders will be available in six size configurations.
Riverside has been a long-time maker of rotors and wear parts used in auto shredders. Lynxs Shredder Technology Ltd. has been making shredders for the European market under the direction of managing director Tim Christian. A Lnyxs shredder plant in Belfast, Northern Ireland will serve as a demonstration and display model for potential Riverside Shredders customers. Osborn Engineering Inc. is an experienced manufacturer of infeed and downstream systems for shredders.
Systems Alternatives Inc., Maumee, Ohio, a company known for its scrap software, displayed its Motion Compensated Crane Scale (MCS), which allows crane operators to lift and weigh amounts up to 25,000 pounds without having to come to a stop in order to take a scale reading.
In the software realm, Britain’s Mayer Information Technology made several announcements regarding sales to U.S. scrap recyclers. Among the companies with whom Mayer Information Technology is now supplying its inventory and operations software to are Metal Management Inc., Chicago; Commercial Metals Co., Dallas; and American Iron & Metal Co., Montreal.
Mayer Information Technology managing director Rob Horan notes that while the company’s initial product was targeted toward larger, multi-site scrap operators, Mayer’s Operations Manager software package can be suited to work for smaller, single-site recycling facility operators.
COMMODITY CAUCUSES
Scrap recyclers also gathered at the various Commodity Spotlight sessions and in other venues to discuss the future supply, demand and pricing of scrap commodities.
A comprehensive session on used beverage cans (UBCs) featured remarks from processors and consumers of the material, as well as equipment makers and others involved with the curbside commodity that is also of interest to scrap recyclers.
Processing techniques and the risk of contaminants were also discussed, with attendees discovering the recycling industry was at odds over the disposal of hypodermic needles used in non-medical applications.
Historically, needle users have been encouraged to place needles inside UBCs, thus reducing the likelihood that trash handlers would be poked. While that may solve one problem, it creates another at a MRF or somewhere else in the recycling chain when contaminants will be sought out and extracted from the aluminum UBC stream.
Of wider importance to UBC recyclers was the warning of Dick Kerr, president and CEO of IMCO Recycling, Irving, Texas, that “we need to take seriously this challenge from PET (polyethylene) bottles” and that the aluminum industry needs to “take whatever steps necessary to defend and enhance our market position” in the beverage segment.
In the Aluminum Spotlight, Kevin Moore of General Motors expressed long-term optimism about automakers’ continuing use of aluminum in cars and light trucks—the only end market larger than the beverage can segment.
Ferrous Spotlight attendees listened to the remarks of several industry leaders on the future of consolidation and e-commerce in the scrap industry (see Ferrous department, page 10). Copper Spotlight attendees heard Arthur Miele of Phelps Dodge Corp., Phoenix, note the copper market still contains a substantial surplus, but that imbalance could turn around completely by 2002 if no major production increases come online from copper mining companies.
Paper recyclers were encouraged by the presentation of Edward Sparks of Weyerhaeuser’s Cedar Rapids, Iowa, facility, who noted that the global demand for papermaking fiber continues to grow, as does the recovered paper industry’s share of that overall market.
Attendees may well have left Las Vegas with positive thoughts in mind (as long as they didn’t meet with ill fortune at the gaming tables), and a desire to sign up for “2001: A Scrap Odyssey,” next year’s ISRI convention in San Antonio, taking place March 20-24, 2001. RT
The author is editor of Recycling Today.
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