BIR Report

The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) has released the schedule for its 2007 Autumn Round-Table Sessions, Oct. 21-23 in Warsaw, Poland.

The host hotel for the event is the Warsaw Marriott Hotel, which the BIR describes as being in the heart of Poland’s thriving capital city. The 518-room hotel is across from the city’s Palace of Culture and includes a fitness club, an indoor pool and rooms with high-speed Internet access.

Delegates to the convention can begin registering on Sunday, Oct. 21, in time for the five committee meetings and two Advisory Council events that take place that day.

Programming starts Monday, Oct. 22, with roundtable sessions on paper, plastics, stainless steels and alloys, and nonferrous metals. Also meeting that day are the BIR boards on shredders, nonferrous metals and stainless steel and special alloys, plus the BIR Ambassadors and Young Traders Committees.

Networking opportunities Monday include the Young Traders’ Group party and the event’s welcome reception, which takes place at the Warsaw University of Technology.

The programming for Tuesday, Oct. 23 includes the ferrous and shredder roundtable plus roundtables on tires and textiles. The organization’s ferrous and textiles boards also meet that day, as do the International Environment Council and the Media and Metal Separation Committee.

More information on the event can be found at the BIR Web site at www.bir.org.

Members of the Nonferrous Metals Committee of the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) have largely reported a summer slowdown in demand for and flow of nonferrous scrap.

Robert Stein of Alter Trading, St. Louis, says a reported summer crackdown in China on dishonest importing practices has dramatically slowed shipments into that country. "For weeks, much of that market, a major buyer of scrap around the world, came to a standstill as fears of continued intervention by officials . . . literally scared the buyers out of the market," Stein writes in the September issue of the BIR’s World Mirror newsletter.

From India, Mohan Agarwal of Century Metal Recycling notes that brass and copper import volumes to that nation increased during the summer, keeping red metals prices down in South Asia.

Ralf Schmitz of Germany’s VDM notes in the World Mirror that the most-talked-about topic among Germany’s nonferrous metals professionals is the amendment of EU waste shipment regulations, which he says, "have caused confusion and partially handicapped international trade."

While demand for virgin metals has been "adequate," according to Schmitz, demand for nonferrous scrap has been "slightly more conservative, with high prices prompting buyers to restrict their purchases to what is absolutely necessary."

Red metal scrap availability improved during the summer in the United States, according to Andy Wahl of Newell Recycling of Atlanta Inc. "Copper moved mostly into the domestic market during the months of June and July due to the lack of Asian buying," Wahl writes in the World Mirror.

Wahl adds that stainless steel appears to be going to the export market, as domestic mills try to work through their inventories.

In Western Europe, Michael Oppenheimer of Brookside Metal Co. in the U.K. remarks that red metal scrap availability also increased in his trading region.

He states, "Consumers in China must be running short of material, which may result in a sudden but sustained improvement in the scrap price once the import issues are resolved."

Oppenheimer’s view appears to have been on target, as by late August nonferrous shippers were reporting renewed demand from consumers in China as well as the brokers who represent them.