Scrap Industry News

Blast Shakes Metals Markets

The terrorist attacks that sent two airplanes into the World Trade Center have claimed the lives of more than 6,000 people. Among the victims were traders, brokers, exporters and others involved in the trading of secondary commodities.

Among the tenants of the twin WTC towers were Carr Futures, a commodities brokerage firm and member of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI) and an associate member of the London Metal Exchange. The company’s office was located on the 92nd floor of One World Trade Center.

Two weeks after the September 11 attack, about 70 employees of Carr Futures were unaccounted for and presumed dead. Roughly half of the staff of more than 140 employees was not in the office on the morning of the 11th.

Frenkel & Co. Inc. was another World Trade Center tenant and ISRI member. The business insurance company did not lose any employees in the disaster, according to a note published on the company’s Web site. It relocated operations to office space in New York and New Jersey.

The operations of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), another ISRI member, were disrupted for several days by the widespread damage caused by the attack. NYMEX trading was suspended for several days after the attack. The company’s home at the World Financial Center in lower Manhattan is near the World Trade Center complex.

Robin Wiener, president of ISRI, lost a brother in the Sept. 11 tragedy at the Trade Center. A memorial service has been held in New York for her brother Jeff Wiener.

Companies with heavy equipment, including scrap recycling companies and demolition contractors, began arriving on the scene by Tuesday afternoon.

More coverage of the efforts of demolition and equipment companies at the clean-up site can be found in the C&D News department.

Hydro to Build Second U.S. Plant

Hydro Aluminum, Louisville, Ky., has announced plans to build its second aluminum recycling plant in the United States. The secondary billet plant will be built in Commerce, Texas. It will have an annual capacity of 90,000 metric tons.

The company is a division of Norsk Hydro, a Norway-based company. The parent company is the largest supplier of aluminum billet in the world.

The re-melt facility in Texas will be the second North American smelter for the company, with the first re-melt facility opening in Henderson, Ky., this past May. Hydro Aluminum has also purchased an existing smelter in Monett, Mo., from Wells Aluminum.

Hydro will invest $37 million in the new Texas plant. The company expects to begin construction this fall with completion by next November.

The Henderson and Commerce plants use a proprietary energy-saving process to affordably make primary-quality billets from clean, prompt grades of aluminum scrap.

The facility will provide product to aluminum consumers in the Southwest. End markets will be from transportation, as well as the building and construction industries.

Norsk Hydro presently has four plants in Europe producing 250,000 metric tons of aluminum billets per year. The company also has a fifth aluminum re-melt facility in Spain scheduled to open later this year. That facility will have an annual capacity of 60,000 metric tons.

WTC Scrap Looting Investigated

A Manhattan grand jury will reportedly be presented with evidence that some 250 tons of scrap metal has found its way into three New York area scrap yards. All material taken from the blast area is supposed to go to the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, where crime scene investigators will sift through it.

The Post report claims that 75 tons of metal has been found at Mid-Island Scrap Metal in Deer Park, N.Y., while another 180 tons of material has been located at two scrap yards in New Jersey.The newspaper cites unnamed law enforcement sources who are linking the thefts to “some of the city’s five crime families.”