Nonmetallics

Container lines in the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (WTSA) have announced plans to assess bunker fuel surcharges separately from base freight rates for recovered fiber and allow those surcharges to float, adjusted on a regular basis to reflect fluctuations in world bunker fuel prices.

Recovered fiber contracts have typically included provisions mitigating the bunker surcharge and folding it into an all-inclusive rate, owing partly to the low shipment value and unique price structure of U.S. recovered fiber shipments to Asia.

WTSA Executive Administrator Brian Conrad says, "Wastepaper rates are low from the outset, and downward pressure on rates over time has eroded fuel cost recovery buried within the rates. At the volumes wastepaper moves, it is nowhere near making an adequate revenue contribution, as fuel costs have risen 55 percent since the beginning of 2007 alone."

The WTSA reports that more than 233,000 40-foot containers of recovered fiber moved from the United States to Asia in the first half of 2007, accounting for 18.3 percent of the total westbound market.

WTSA stresses that setting bunker surcharges separately from base rates does not mean lines intend to offset the new surcharges with base rate concessions, nor do the new surcharges preclude separate actions on rates during 2007 as market conditions dictate.

The Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement describes itself as a voluntary discussion and research forum of 10 major ocean and intermodal container shipping lines serving the trade from ports and inland points in the United States to destinations throughout Asia. Members of the agreement include APL Ltd., Hyundai Merchant Marine Co. Ltd., COSCO Container Lines Ltd., Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. (K Line), Evergreen Line, Nippon Yusen Kaisha, Hanjin Shipping Co.Ltd., Orient Overseas Container Line Ltd., Hapag Lloyd AG and Yangming Marine Transport Corp.

Harmon Associates LLC, a subsidiary of Georgia-Pacific LLC, and Remizzo Inc. have jointly announced the formation of Harmon Associates India Private Ltd.

The newly formed company was created to provide logistics services for Harmon Associates’ recycled paper customers in India. The company’s Mumbai office opened Dec. 1, 2007.

Harmon Associates India will have dedicated employees to inspect incoming containers at the port, verify the quality of material and assist customers with customs clearance and trans-shipment from the port.

"Together with our long-term sales consultant, Remizzo Inc., Harmon Associates is responding to the growing recycled paper and plastic needs of our customers in India," Simon Davies, president of Harmon Associates, says. "The creation of this new entity demonstrates our commitment to be a full-service provider for our new and existing customers in India, in addition to offering new opportunities for our supply base in North America, Europe and around the globe."

Raza Chouls, president of Remizzo Inc., says, "We are pleased to join with Harmon Associates to create a new entity that will provide timely service to our customers and shows our commitment to the market here."

Harmon Associates is a division of Georgia-Pacific and purchases and sells recycled fiber. More information about the company and the current venture in India is available through Georgia-Pacific’s Web site www.gp.com.

Eco2 Plastics has claimed that initial test results show that the company’s cleaning process can produce recycled PET plastic flake that is pure enough to use in manufacturing food-contact containers.

"Based upon the initial data and analysis performed by The National Food Laboratory Inc. and our attorneys Keller & Heckman, we are pleased to see that our process meets the food-contact standards of the U.S. FDA. Not only are we recycling PET bottles in an environmentally friendly way, but we are delivering the highest possible quality through the process as well," Rod Rougelot, CEO.

Eco2 Plastics is conducting further tests and expects to file a formal application with the FDA in 2008.

Liberty Tire Recycling held an early December Grand Opening event for its newly renovated and expanded facility in Grove City, Ohio, just south of Columbus.

The 27,000-square-foot facility can recycle about 5 million tires annually, according to the company. The end products to be made at the plant include mulch and playground products, tire-derived fuel, scrap steel and manufactured items, such as pavers, mats, molded and extruded rubber goods.

Liberty has invested approximately $4 million in constructing the operation, including a $350,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

At the Open House, Jeff Kendall, CEO of Liberty, thanked Sean Logan, the director of the Ohio of Department of Natural Resources, and his staff for their assistance in developing the company’s new facility.

Liberty has operated this plant and a similar facility in Minerva, Ohio, since 2002. The company says it has processed and recycled more than 50 million tires in that time.

Liberty is also adding additional equipment in Grove City to accommodate a Groundscape mulch coloring and bagging process.

Liberty Tire, headquartered in Pittsburgh, says it collected and recycled approximately 70 million scrap tires in 2007 at 12 locations through the U.S

Delta-Energy LLC, Monroeville, Pa., has introduced two carbon black-based products recovered from tire shreds that can be used as alternatives to virgin carbon black in rubber and plastic compounds.

The products were introduced at the 2007 Rubber Expo, held in Cleveland.

Delta-Energy has been test marketing the product line for the past two years, according to the company. "We are extremely excited about the D-E Black product lines—Phoenix Black for rubber reinforcement and Zephyr Black for plastic and coatings pigmentation," says Bill Cole, Delta-Energy’s vice president, product management. "Phoenix Black’s reinforcing properties are comparable to virgin carbon black’s."

Delta-Energy offered a presentation on Phoenix Black at the 2007 Rubber Expo that was conducted jointly with Polymerics Inc., an Ohio-based rubber compounder. "We have seen char products from a number of laboratory scale tire pyrolysis processes in the past. These products never reached the carbon black map," Joe Arhar, president of Polymerics, says.

"Like many other rubber compounders, we thought these processes would not ever produce recovered black capable of matching virgin carbon black," he continues.

However, Arhar says Delta-Energy’s process is different from others he has seen.

Delta-Energy also has independent test data from plant-manufactured recovered black that corresponds with Polymerics’ screening test data of the material.

Arhar adds, "We are convinced recovered black from scrap tires is now a viable technology that has a future in the rubber industry. We are now taking the products of Delta-Energy’s technology to our custom-mix customers to counter some of the raw material cost increases all of us in the rubber industry have seen over the past year."

More information on Delta-Energy on its new products can be found at the company’s Web site at www.deltaenergy.com.