Metals

Levitated Metals’ heavy media plant begins operations

Levitated Metals has started operations at its heavy media plant in New Caney, Texas, which is near Houston. The company also has expanded its executive team with the addition of David Burlison and Glenn Gunter.

Burlison has joined the company as director of marketing. He is responsible for purchasing zorba from domestic automobile shredder operators. Prior to his new role at Levitated, Burlison was a senior metals trader at Real Alloy. He also has worked for Custom Alloys in California and has been in the scrap industry for more than 25 years.

“Levitated has become a valued partner to nearby suppliers in our first months of operations,” he says. “I look forward to providing the same competitive pricing and easy logistics as we expand beyond Texas.”

Gunter is director of operations and leads the Levitated team in producing high-quality low-magnesium twitch for the secondary aluminum industry. He has been providing operations leadership at Levitated since the first piece of equipment was installed.

“Every equipment design decision and operational choice is driven by our primary goal: to provide our customers the superior aluminum twitch that only a dual-stage heavy media flotation plant can generate,” Gunter says.

Prior to joining Levitated, Gunter served as operations manager for Upstate Shredding, which is headquartered in New York, and as general manager for SA Recycling’s Mobile, Alabama, facility, where he oversaw auto shredder operations.

The New Caney facility was constructed during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in many unexpected challenges, according to the company. “Our supply partners worked tirelessly to ensure a safe and healthy startup,” says Ronak Shah, the company’s president. “We navigated equipment supply chain disruptions and the difficulties of international travel for overseas technical experts.”

Levitated Metals hosted a groundbreaking ceremony Jan. 15, 2020, to mark the start of construction of its heavy media plant in the East Montgomery County Industrial Park about 35 miles northeast of Houston.

Shah most recently worked for Alter Trading Corp., St. Louis, as the company’s vice president of strategy and technology, a position he held for roughly six years. Prior to that, he was the company’s senior director of operations strategy. Shah also worked for Portland, Oregon-based Schnitzer Steel Industries as director of continuous improvement.

Levitated’s plant is expected to produce 10 million pounds per month when operating at full scale. The company’s location is close to suppliers and consumers and offers a busy container port and strong workforce, Shah said when construction on the facility was announced.

China pulls rebate support on some exported steel

The central government of the People’s Republic of China has indicated it will remove export tax rebates on 146 kinds of steel products starting in May, according to MySteel. The Beijing-based information service says China’s Ministry of Finance and its State Taxation Administration made the announcement April 28.

Olivia Zhang of MySteel writes, “After a long wait and market speculation, China’s governing bodies have finally announced the list of the steel products that will no longer enjoy any tax rebates when exporting, and the new measure will be applied to any Customs declaration forms that are dated on May 1 and afterwards, the joint statement explained briefly.”

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Zhang says among the 146 products covered are carbon, alloy and stainless steel products, including hot-rolled, cold-rolled and galvanized steel. Also listed are some forms of tubes and pipes, bars and wire rods, steel rails and angles.

At a mid-March Argus Media online event, Argus Media’s Tim Hard mentioned the rebates as a factor that would have “an outsize effect on the global and regulatory” landscape in 2021.

Bloomberg, in an April 28 online article, describes the move as an effort by the Chinese government to “ramp up efforts to cut output and clean up one of the biggest carbon emitters” in the nation.

In mid-March 2020 as China recovered from its bout with the COVID-19 virus, China’s government announced it was raising the export rebates on more than 1,000 steel products from 10 to 13 percent, according to MySteel at that time.

China has been the world’s largest steel producer for many years, and in the last few years has made 1 billion metric tons or more steel per year. Although China is not a major exporter of steel to the United States, the amount it makes often stirs accusations of overcapacity by steelmaking trade associations in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere.

Gerdau to restart EAF mill in Brazil

Brazil-based steel producer Gerdau SA says it is restarting an electric arc furnace (EAF) steel mill in Guaíra, Brazil, in the second half of this year. The company attributes the restart to “the positive scenario for steel demand” in that nation.

In a 2017 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Gerdau describes the Guaíra mill as an EAF minimill that produces steel billet. Guaíra is in the state of São Paulo and is about 280 miles inland from the large Brazilian city for which that state is named.

In its April news release announcing the planned restart, Gerdau refers to the Guaíra mill as having “annual crude steel production capacity of 420,000 tons.”

The company says the mill “has been in hibernation since 2014” and that it will gradually resume operations at the facility, “adjusting its production volume to the evolution of the domestic market.”

Marcos Faraco, a vice president with Gerdau, says, “We are optimistic about the bright outlook for the domestic market. By resuming production, the company aims to continue meeting the growing demand for long steel in Brazil, and to optimize the supply of products to customers throughout the country alongside existing capacities.”