Scrap Industry News

IMCO RECYCLING ACQUIRES ALCHEM ALUMINUM

IMCO Recycling Inc., Irving, Texas, has acquired Alchem Aluminum Inc., a privately owned producer of specification aluminum alloys for automobile manufacturers and their suppliers.

Don V. Ingram, chairman and chief executive officer of IMCO says that the acquisition of Alchem “is a particularly important step for IMCO because it allows us to increase our services to the auto industry and transportation sector, the largest and fastest-growing aluminum market. About 30% of our annual domestic capacity will now be supplied to this market, up from 5 in 1994.

“With the acquisition of Alchem and new plant construction as well as expansions that will be completed this year, IMCO’s annual capacity will rise to 2.6 billion pounds in 1998, 14 percent above the 1996 level,” Ingram says.

Alchem’s customers include many of the major U.S. auto manufacturers, producers of automobile castings and other aftermarket suppliers. Alchem is based in Coldwater, Mich. IMCO bills itself as the world’s largest aluminum recycler and also processes zinc and magnesium.

AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE FAULTS GLOBAL CLIMATE TREATY

Thousands of steel industry jobs could be lost if the United States signs the climate treaty recently negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).

“Our healthy American economy, the envy of many nations, could become an endangered species if this treaty is signed,” Andrew G. Gharkey, III, president and CEO of AISI. “The Kyoto treaty would economically disadvantage the U.S. with costly binding targets while benefiting rival steel industries in developing nations that have refused to participate, such as China, India and South Korea. It would be a huge economic blunder to offer such a significant edge to our foreign competitors.”

Sharkey said the steel industry has achieved a 45 percent reduction in energy consumption since 1975 by the introduction of new technologies and better energy management, not through mandates or binding emission reductions, such as the Kyoto climate treaty proposes. The AISI also claims that over the past 30 years the steel industry has achieved tremendous emission reductions through more than $50 billion of investments in new technologies, with $7 billion of that spent on environmental controls.

 The AISI—comprised of 49 member companies, including integrated and electric furnace steel makers, and 165 associate and affiliate members who are suppliers to or customers of the steel industry—advocates voluntary programs to reduce emissions.

RECYCLING INDUSTRIES COMPLETES WAVE OF ACQUISITIONS

Recycling Industries Inc. completed its acquisition of six businesses for an aggregate purchase price of $151 million, which includes approximately $37 million in working capital.

As reported in the December 1997 Recycling Today, the six companies are Jacobson Metal Company, Grossman Brothers Company and Milwaukee Briquetting Company, United Metal Recyclers, Brenner Companies and Central Metal Company.

Estimated annual revenues of the six companies are $195 million, which brings the annual revenue rate of Recycling Industries to approximately $285 million.

“We are pleased to welcome this distinguished group of metals recycling companies into Recycling Industries’ family,” said Tom Wiens, chairman and CEO of Recycling Industries. “All of these companies are premier operations and are expected to be accretive to earnings. The closing of these six transactions represents an important step in the execution of our long-term industry consolidation program.”

Recycling Industries, headquartered in Englewood, Colo., is a major national raw materials supplier to the mini-mill sector of the steel industry.

SVEDALA ACQUIRES ITALIAN EQUIPMENT MAKER

Svedala Industri AB, Malmo, Sweden, announced the acquisition of the Loro & Parisini Group, an Italian manufacturer of crushing and screening equipment. Milan-based Loro & Parisini had been a part of the Italian conglomerate Italmobiliare. The acquired company—which employs 150 people in Italy, France and Spain and has annual sales of $31.2 million—was founded in 1923 and has previously made Svedala crushers under a licensing agreement.