Metal Watch

ECS TEXAS OPENS NEW DROSS RECYCLING PLANT

ECS Refining, Santa Clara, Calif., has opened a new plant in Terrell, Texas, near Dallas, to recycle tin/lead solder dross and other related metallic drosses. "This plant will place ECS in a position to be very competitive on a national as well as international scale, and provides a base for further expansion, not only in the solder business, but in a wide variety of other metallic waste streams as well," says Jim Taggart, president of ECS Refining.

MIDREX/KOBE SPIREX PLANT PLANNED

Midrex Direct Reduction Corp., Charlotte, N.C., and its parent company, Kobe Steel Ltd., Tokyo, have developed a new direct reduction process, called the SPIREX process, that uses iron ore fines and natural gas as the oxide and reductant sources to produce direct reduced iron fines or hot briquetted iron. The two companies will build a demonstration-scale plant for the process in Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela.

The SPIREX process will be able to use a wide range of iron ore fines, including those suitable for standard pellet and sinter feed, compared to other fines-based direct reduction processes that require more uniform sizing of the fines. The demonstration plant is expected to have a nominal capacity of 30,000 metric tons per year. Midrex and KSL plan to invest approximately $14 million in construction and operation of the trial facility. Construction is scheduled to begin in the second half of 1997, and the first trials are expected to be run in the second quarter of 1998.

CANADA RECYCLES AEROSOL CONTAINERS

Since the Canadian Aerosol Information Bureau, Ottawa, Ontario, introduced its National Aerosol Recycling Program in July of last year, aerosol recycling in Canada has increased more than 600 percent, with 114 municipalities participating. The primary objectives of the NARP are to provide programs that encourage the safe integration of empty aerosols into municipal recycling programs and to provide regulators and the public with accurate, scientific information about aerosols.

This year, the Bureau plans to launch an aerosol recycling program in the Greater Victoria region. In addition, the program’s goal for the year is to increase the number of Canadian recycling aerosols from 2 million to 8 million.

JAPANESE SCRAP INDUSTRY FACES MARKET CHALLENGES

Although the Japanese economy is finally starting to recover after three years of zero growth, a number of factors are causing hardships to the Japanese ferrous scrap industry, according to a report from Hideo Itoh, Nakadaya Corp., Japan, given at last fall’s Bureau of International Recycling meeting in Brussels.

"Although the overvalued yen is being adjusted, transfer of production works to overseas countries is still continuing at a high speed, which has resulted in less demand for steel and less arising of industrial scrap," said Itoh. "Whatever profit is shown on the financial statements of steel mills is produced by both manpower and production cutbacks."

Japanese crude steel production in 1996 was 97.85 million tons – the lowest for the past 13 years. Blast furnaces have excess pig iron and scrap they are selling outside the country, despite Japanese electric arc furnaces that are using more pig iron. In addition, more scrap than usual is being exported. This year, a monthly average of 30,000 tons have been exported, up from the usual amount, which is less than 10,000 tons.

Another factor hurting the Japanese scrap industry is stricter regulation of shredder fluff, says Itoh. "Up until March it could be put in regular landfills, but after April it has to be in control type landfills," he said. "As a result of this change, landfill costs went up to a minimum of US$135. Landfill costs have been inching up, and as of early October the price in major areas in for US$170 per ton of fluff."

NEW ENTITY TO OPERATE SECONDARY SMELTER

Columbia Aluminum Recycling Corp. (CARCO), a secondary aluminum smelter in Portland, Ore., will now be operated by a new limited liability corporation headed by Ken Peterson, chief executive officer of Columbia Ventures Corp., and Warren Rosenfeld, president of Calbag Metals Co., both located in Portland. Under new management, CARCO has formally become Columbia Aluminum Recycling Co. LLC. Already, the new partnership has installed a new reverberatory furnace at the smelter that will triple the facility’s production capabilities and enable the company to remelt a wider variety of aluminum scrap feedstock.

Earlier this year, CARCO selected Calbag as its exclusive scrap metal supplier. "Strategically, we are the only secondary smelter in the Northwest located adjacent to a port, so we have cost advantages for delivering product to Pacific Rim customers," says Rosenfeld.

IMCO TO ACQUIRE ROCK CREEK ALUMINUM

IMCO Recycling Inc., Irving, Texas, has agreed to acquire Rock Creek Aluminum Inc., with production facilities in Cleveland, Elyria, Ohio and Rock Creek, Ohio. Rock Creek is a manufacturer of aluminum products for the steel industry. IMCO will pay $9.5 million for the company and will assume $1.7 million in long-term debt. "This acquisition will allow us to serve a new end market for recycled aluminum, one of our major strategic goals for growth," says Frank Romanelli, president and chief executive officer of IMCO.