Peruvian steelmaker buys Florida shredder yard

Peru-based electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaker Corporación Aceros Arequipa S.A. (CAASA) says it has agreed to purchase an auto shredder yard in Florida formerly operated by Topsham, Maine-based Grimmel Industries. CAASA also will acquire a second Grimmel yard in St. Petersburg, Florida, as part of the transaction.

In an announcement posted to its website, CAASA says it has “signed a contract to purchase the assets of two business units that collect metal cargo located in Florida” and that the acquisition was made through two subsidiaries created to undertake the purchase: Aceros America Port Manatee LLC and Aceros America St. Pete LLC.

According to the 2020 Recycling Today Auto Shredder List and Map, a shredder is operated by Grimmel Industries in Palmetto, Florida, known as Port Manatee Scrap Recycling. Palmetto is on the Gulf Coast of Florida, about 40 miles south of Tampa.

The CAASA announcement states in part, “Among the main assets acquired are two 116,000-square-meter (1.25-million-square-foot) yards, a 6,000 horsepower and 450 RPM [revolutions per minute] shredder, as well as a magnetic metal separator that will allow the segregation of nonferrous material for export mainly to Asia.”

The EAF steelmaker says it expects to supply itself with 100,000 tons of ferrous scrap per year from the Florida operations, “reinforcing the supply of recycled steel” for its upgraded EAF melt shop in Pisco, Peru.

“The new furnace requires almost 400,000 tons per year or more, so we must assure the volume," Diego Arróspide Benavides, the strategic sourcing manager at Aceros Arequipa, tells Recycling Today. He adds that “100 percent of the ferrous scrap will be shipped to Pisco" from Florida. 

“In this way, the company continues to consolidate its expansion and integration of the value chain, ensuring the raw material for the production of international quality steel,” comments Tulio Silgado, general manager of Aceros Arequipa.