Conferences & events

Platts event offers steel industry outlook

Platts McGraw-Hill Financial has selected the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Chicago as the venue for its 12th annual Steel Markets North America conference. The event, which Platts says will provide a steel market outlook as well as information on demand trends and international competition, is March 14-15, 2016.

The conference takes place throughout the day Monday, March 14, and continues into the morning of Tuesday, March 15. Among the topics to be discussed are:

• the state of the steel industry;
• ferrous scrap in North America;
• China’s impact on North American steel markets;
• North American steel demand; and
• new directions and advances in DRI (direct reduced iron) technologies and economics.

Among the speakers scheduled are:

• Mario Longhi, CEO of United States Steel Corp., Pittsburgh;
• Timna Tanners, a managing director with Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York;
• Bill Ferara, director and lead analyst for downstream metals, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, New York;
• Lynn Lupori-Gray of Hatch Associates, Mississauga, Ontario;
• Rich Brady, executive vice president with OmniSource Corp., based in Fort Wayne, Indiana;
• Peter Meyers, a vice president with Metalico, Cranford, New Jersey;
• Brian Taylor, an editor with the Recycling Today Media Group, which is based in Valley View, Ohio;
• Nicole Leonard, an energy analyst and project consultant with Bentek Energy, Denver; and
• Bill Hickey, president of Lapham-Hickey Steel, Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Platts says it has invited and is lining up more speakers, including additional industry executives and analysts.

Those seeking more information on Steel Markets North America can visit www.platts.com/events/americas/steel-markets-north-america/index.

Ecova and US Chamber of Commerce Foundation host circular economy business tour

Ecova, an energy and sustainability management company based in Spokane, Washington, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, based in the nation’s capital, partnered to host an inaugural business tour on the circular economy Nov. 9-10, 2015, in Seattle. The tour was in response to companies actively pursuing innovative approaches that encourage economic growth using yesterday’s waste as tomorrow’s resource.

Presenters shared best practices and—through physical site visits—showcased solutions to eradicate waste using proven circular economy principles and programs.

The circular economy is a regenerative model that aims to keep components, materials and products at their highest value at all times, creating no waste for landfills.

“It was so exciting seeing the figurative ‘light bulbs’ go off over everyone’s head and their eagerness to take what they had learned on the tour back to their own companies,” says Jennifer Gerholdt, environment and sustainability director at U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

The tour agenda included leaders in the circular economy, such as Republic Services, General Biodiesel, Philips and PCC Markets/WISErg. Among the best practices they shared were:

• At Philips’ North America’s Bothell-based health care manufacturing building, attendees observed the service, repair and refurbish center for ultrasound equipment and its recycling operations. In health care and lighting, the company has pioneered selling a service rather than a product. For example, medical facilities do not purchase ultrasound equipment—they purchase its services. When it breaks, it can be sent back to be repaired and refurbished.
• Republic Services uses a combination of machines and people to sort residential and commercial recycling. The company’s next focus is organics.
• WISErg, Redmond, Washington, creates fertilizers using compostable waste. WISErg’s patent pending Harvester converts food scraps into a nutrient-rich liquid for animal feed, industrial use and composting.
• At the General Biodiesel facility, drums from Rainier, a local Seattle brewery, were reused as biodiesel containers. The facility reuses methanol, which is used for chemical reactions, while glycerin, a byproduct of the chemical process, is sold to other industries.