Metals

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MetalX completes purchase of SRT Aluminum

MetalX, Fort Wayne, Indiana, has completed the transaction to acquire the assets and business of secondary aluminum smelter SRT Aluminum in Wabash, Indiana, which converts aluminum scrap into specification remelt scrap ingot (RSI). With the closing of the purchase, the newly acquired company is operating as MetalX Aluminum Conversion LLC, or MAC.

MetalX announced the purchase in May of this year.

The company also has announced that aluminum and manufacturing industry veteran David Currence has been named plant manager at MAC and will be responsible for leading the company’s efforts to refine operating performance and increase capacity. Additionally, Joe Rosengarten, former SRT chief operating officer, will join the MetalX commercial team as a vice president. More than 120 other SRT Aluminum employees now are employed by MAC.

MAC sits on a 40-acre site that also includes an aluminum shredder and turnings processing facility and melt operations that use three electric induction and two reverb furnaces to produce RSI in sow and ingot form. In the near term, MetalX says it intends to increase monthly throughput from 11 million pounds to 15 million pounds, with longer-term plans to invest to expand capacity.

“We are excited to welcome our new Wabash employees to the MetalX team and look forward to their support and participation in building a successful and growing business,” MetalX CEO Danny Rifkin says. “Completion of this transaction marks the first step in our plan to incorporate aluminum melting capabilities into our overall strategy.”

In late 2021, Australia-based steelmaker BlueScope announced it had entered into an agreement to buy MetalX’s ferrous scrap recycling business, describing the company as “the leading supplier of scrap feed” to its Delta, Ohio, electric arc furnace (EAF) steel mill, North Star BlueScope Steel.

Following the announcement from BlueScope, Rifkin said MetalX planned to grow its nonferrous business. BlueScope then purchased the Delta and Waterloo facilities, and MetalX’s nonferrous business from Waterloo transitioned to Auburn, Indiana.

“We have been working on developing a more extensive nonferrous strategy for some time,” he added. “We see tremendous opportunity for the future in the nonferrous segment, especially related to copper and aluminum. So, as the world moves towards more electrification and lighter weight, and as the use of copper and aluminum becomes more prevalent in everything, we see that as an outstanding opportunity for long-term growth for the company.”

Danny and Neal Rifkin founded MetalX in 2012. They are third- and fourth-generation members of the Rifkin family, which has a long history in the U.S. scrap industry. The family founded OmniSource Corp., the scrap company that was sold in 2007 to EAF steelmaker Steel Dynamics Inc., headquartered in Fort Wayne.

Sims receives go-ahead in Chicago

The Sims Metal business unit of Australia-based Sims Ltd. says the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has granted its approval to issue a construction permit to the company for a proposed advanced emission control system at its auto shredding plant in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago.

“We are pleased that after a very thorough due diligence process that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has now endorsed Sims Metal’s plan to enclose our metal shredder at all emission points and add state-of-the-art advanced emission controls by approving our request for a construction permit,” Sims Metal Global Chief Operating Officer John Glyde says.

“Sims Metal continues to invest in upgrades at, and improvements to, the Chicago facility in Pilsen as we lead by example with best practices for other industrial employers,” Glyde continues. “These significant upgrades to our environmental control systems will allow us to continue being a good neighbor. This $15 million investment in advanced controls has only been made by a handful of facilities nationwide—and none to a midsized metal shredder like ours. This investment in Pilsen is a win for all local stakeholders and the city of Chicago.”

About 15 miles south of the Pilsen facility, owners of a shredding plant have been engaged in a lengthy legal process to open an auto shredding facility. In February, the city of Chicago denied Southside Recycling its final permit, preventing the plant from operating. The decision was reached following an analysis that the U.S. EPA recommended to assess the environmental justice implications and potential environmental and health effects of the proposed facility. The Chicago Department of Public Health conducted the analysis.

The company and its ownership group, Reserve Management Group (RMG), based in Ohio, said at the time it would challenge that decision using all available channels. RMG has been planning and has invested some $80 million in its site since 2018.

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Sortera Alloys to expand

Sortera Alloys Inc. of Fort Wayne, Indiana, will expand into a new 200,000-square-foot processing facility in Markle, Indiana, following a formal groundbreaking in the fourth quarter. The company says processing will ramp up in the first quarter of 2023, adding that the site has the option to expand to 400,000 square feet.

Sortera’s technology combines artificial intelligence, data analytics and advanced sensors to sort aluminum alloys from existing streams of mixed alloy scrap, commonly called twitch, that typically are shipped abroad for processing or used to produce secondary aluminum grades. The resulting aluminum scrap created by Sortera’s sorting process will be recirculated into the manufacturing industry to be used in high-value applications, such as automotive cast and flat-rolled products and building, construction and aerospace extrusions, according to the company.

In July, Sortera announced it had raised $10 million to advance end-of-life recycling for automotive metals. The funding round was led by Assembly Ventures with additional funding from Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Novelis Inc. The company also announced a commercial agreement with Novelis this summer. Through that agreement, Atlanta-based Novelis says it will be able to effectively separate mixed automotive scrap into individual alloys and recycle it back into the same products, allowing the aluminum producer to meet original equipment makers’ needs for performance, durability, safety and design.

“The new facility represents a significant milestone for Sortera as we look to scale our operations and capture a large chunk of the 4 billion pounds of scrap alloy that is currently sent overseas,” Sortera Alloys CEO Michael Siemer says. “This will allow us to fill the increased demand for high-quality recycled alloys in the domestic market, specifically with automotive customers.”

The facility will be in Markle, roughly 25 miles southwest of Fort Wayne. Sortera says it plans to move its existing operations from Fort Wayne to the new facility. Once fully operational, the site will employ approximately 110 workers. 

“Sortera’s low-cost, scalable sorting process enables aluminum manufacturers to use roughly 5 percent of the energy required to manufacture aluminum from virgin material, enabling customers to reduce their CO2 footprint and pursue sustainability and circular production goals,” says Ben Pope, vice president of commercialization at Sortera Alloys. “Our new facility is a perfect fit for our first mass production location. We are excited that Markle has the right workforce and is a special place that is proactively looking for partners to enhance their community.”

Markle Council Vice President Nick Lund and President Matt Doss say Sortera will have a “significant” impact on the community “with little impact on our local environment.”