Recycle or die

Being one of the oldest family-owned-and-operated scrap businesses in Connecticut has its advantages. Started in 1895 by Max Alderman and now in its fourth generation of ownership, Alderman-Dow Iron & Metal Inc., New Haven, has helped the city and surrounding region stay “green” for more than 121 years through its recycling efforts.

A company with this type of longevity in such a cyclical market has seen its share of market upturns and downward spirals. It’s this experience that guides Alderman-Dow, allowing it to take advantage of the fruitful harvest of good times and efficiently power through the famine brought on by tough patches.

The business is well-diversified in the materials it receives, which include copper, electric wire, aluminum, steel, iron, bronze, batteries, e-scrap and automotive scrap, just to name a few. This material is generated from peddler traffic throughout New Haven and from more than 125 industrial and contractor customers throughout Connecticut.

The company has grown its customer base significantly on the sales side throughout the years and now ships material internationally.

“Turkey is a major importer from off the East Coast,” says Norman Alderman, president and third-generation owner of Alderman-Dow. “We sell to our customers in the Northeast as well as to overseas markets. Our ferrous material is sold internationally through a broker, and nonferrous is sold directly to our domestic customers, as well as to some of our international customers. “

TOUGH TIMES

Even with its wealth of experience and selling to a broad customer base, the sharp drop in steel prices has affected Alderman-Dow’s business just as much as it has the rest of the industry. Norman says he sees this downturn cutting much more deeply than the steep price declines of the Great Recession in 2008.

“In 2008, it was predominantly a U.S. scenario for the scrap business, and government intervention helped to bring back the market,” he says. “We had a nice recovery from 2009 through the end of 2014. Now you see the price dropping across the board globally, and you have countries dumping cheap steel into the market. This drop is global, and business is tough. It’s the toughest I’ve seen in more than 50 years in the business.”

In times like these, some scrap operations would take advantage of the space they have on their property and stockpile as much steel as possible, so they can ride out the price declines and take advantage of increases. Unfortunately, this is somewhat of a limited option for Alderman-Dow for a couple of reasons. First, the operation does not have much space to stockpile scrap. Second, Norman says he is not anticipating a market turnaround until mid-2016.

Alderman-Dow moved to its Chapel Street location 65 years ago, and the city has grown and developed around the scrap recycling company. Interstates 91 and 95 define one boundary of the operation, giving excellent access for truck traffic on the one hand but basically land locking the operation on the other.

“We operate on just shy of 3 acres in this location,” says Jason Alderman, vice president and treasurer for Alderman-Dow, representing the fourth generation of family ownership.

To weather the current economic storm, Alderman-Dow officials say the keys to survival are proper management, good decision-making and conducting business very efficiently.

When a company processes as much material as Alderman-Dow, handling efficiency is critical.

“We process more than 2 million pounds of ferrous and nonferrous metal every month,” explains Ian Alderman, vice president and secretary of Alderman-Dow, also part of the fourth generation of Aldermans to run the company. “Therefore, we must have an efficient material handler. “

When this scrap metal operation’s older handlers were costing too much money to operate, Alderman-Dow turned to Edward Ehrbar, a Fuchs material handler distributor for machine sales and service throughout western Connecticut and downstate and metropolitan New York, for a more efficient solution.

“When commodity prices are down, you must have a dependable handler to maintain consistent costs,” Norman says.

CONSISTENCY IS A VIRTUE

Taking into account the equipment Alderman-Dow used before, the reach needed and the amount of material being moved, Edward Ehrbar identified the Fuchs RHL350 handler as the best fit.

“Since the yard was tight and unpaved, and the operators didn’t move the handler often, a tracked handler was the right fit,” says Andy Jett, a sales representative for Edward Ehrbar.

A recently delivered Fuchs handler gave the company the consistency in handling costs it was looking for. “Ehrbar has the expertise and support we were looking for, and they gave us a good deal on our old handler,” Jason says.

Jett adds, “With a new machine comes a warranty to help control operating costs. Plus, we are there to handle the warranty work and major repairs. “

Today, Alderman-Dow operates two Fuchs RHL350 material handlers, an excavator equipped with a shear, a baler and a small shredder to process its ferrous material. The handlers play a critical role throughout the operation, beginning with truck unloading and loading as well as with material sorting. “Efficiently sorting the material is the key to our business,” Norman says.

EFFICIENCY GAINS

To help increase sorting efficiency at Alderan-Dow, each material handler is equipped with a 0.6-cubic-yard, four-tine grapple. Both machines—the newer RHL350 E series and the older RHL350 D series handlers—also are equipped with a magnet to help efficiently sort and move a wider variety of material throughout the typical workday.

“We have the magnet hooked to the boom via a quick-connect attachment, so the operator can efficiently switch back and forth between the grapple and the magnet as needed,” Ian says.

With their 52.5-foot boom/stick configuration, the two material handlers cover virtually the entire ferrous processing yard with minimal machine movements. The long reach of the purpose-built machines reduce the number of times material is handled, which increases efficiency for Alderman-Dow.

The material handlers are helping to boost Alderman-Dow’s efficiency and to maintain consistent operating costs, so the company can control its controllables. They also are giving this family-run business the opportunity to continue with its mission that has helped to guide the business for more than a century through the good times and bad: Recycle or die.

The author submitted this article on behalf of Fuchs, a Terex brand, with U.S. headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky. More information is available at www.terex-fuchs.com/en.