Scrap Industry News

L. Gordon I&M Adds Locations

Gordon Industries, parent of long-time family-owned scrap processor L. Gordon Iron & Metal, acquired five scrap facilities in North Carolina that have been idle for around six months. The acquired plants include facilities in Charlotte, Kernersville, Smithfield, and Winston-Salem. Additionally, a car crushing operation in Salisbury was acquired through an auction conducted that sold off a host of the bankrupt Recycling Industries facilities late last month.

Many of the North Carolina facilities were formerly owned by Brenner Iron & Metal Co., before that company sold out to Recycling Industries. There has been speculation that some Brenner family members may re-enter the scrap business, but Gordon Industries executives have not yet commented on whether the Brenners will be working with them.

Louis Gordon, vice president of Gordon Industries, says the purchase price for the scrap yards and equipment was around $8.25 million. Gordon says staffing of management and employees at the facilities is being put in place so all locations will be processing both ferrous and nonferrous metals by the end of this summer.

The plants are expected to process between 30,000 and 35,000 tons of ferrous scrap a month and between 2,000 and 2,500 tons of nonferrous scrap a month.

Along with staffing the facilities, the company will be taking a look at the equipment that was acquired. Two large auto shredders, a smaller shredder, as well as balers, eddy current separators, and heavy media separation equipment may require some repair and servicing.

Competing with the Mob

The scrap business is tough enough without having to go up against competitors willing to use brute force to get an advantage.

If federal prosecutors in New York City prove their case, however, that is what many scrap recyclers and auto dismantlers faced during the mid and late 1990s in New York City.

The case against Carmine "The Bull" Agnello, son-in-law of jailed organized crime figure John Gotti, was being tried in July, with prosecutors allegedly having lengthy taped telephone conversations and several insider witnesses as ammunition.

According to the New York Post, the taped conversations reveal how Agnello built a $100 million scrap processing and auto dismantling operation in the Ozone Park section of Queens using force and intimidation. Among the tactics allegedly used by Agnello and his associates:

• Fire-bombing two rival firms, including taped instructions to a hired arsonist on how to carry out the bombings using "thin glass bottles" and road flares.

• Threats made to a Bronx trucking company to put the owners "in the hospital" and "out of business." The company allegedly shuttered its operations just two hours later.

Agnello may have been tied to 20 or more businesses, many of them scrap and auto dismantling related, in or near the borough of Queens in New York. Jamaica Auto Salvage Inc. operated on Liberty Ave. in Queens.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Queens District Attorney’s office investigated Agnello and his businesses for four years before levying charges of extortion, arson and racketeering last year.

Agnello’s attorney is quoted by the New York Post as saying the tapes will in fact exonerate his client. "He’s only under indictment because he’s John Gotti’s son-in-law," attorney Ben Brafman told the Post.

ISRI Roundtable Speakers Announced

Speakers for two of the seven sessions at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI) Commodities Roundtable event, to be held Oct. 17-19 in suburban Chicago, have been announced.

The Copper/Brass Roundtable, which will take place on Weds., Oct. 17, will feature presentations from speakers with four different companies in the red metals industry:

•Gary Miller, vice president-commercial with Asarco Inc., New York

•Gerd Hoffmann with Huettenwerke Kayser, Lunen, Germany

•Tom Morton with Wolverine Tube, Decatur, Ala., and

•Ronald McGrainor, senior vice president with Refco Inc., Hudson, Ohio.

Three speakers have been lined up for the next day’s Aluminum Roundtable:

•Robert McHale, vice president-metal purchases with Alcoa, Cressona, Pa.

•Lloyd O’Carroll of BB&T Capital Markets, Richmond, Va., and

•Edward Cowan, president of Beck Aluminum, Mayfield Heights, Ohio.

In addition to the Copper/Brass and Aluminum Roundtables, other sessions scheduled for Oct. 17 and 18 are Roundtables on Lead/Zinc, Electronics Recycling and Ferrous Scrap. On Friday, Oct. 19, a Consumer/Processor Dialogue event will be held, as will a Scrap Buyer’s Perspective session.

The Commodities Roundtable is taking place at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Rosemont, Ill. Those seeking more information can contact ISRI at (202) 662-8534.