Scrap Industry News

The Recycling Today Media Group, in coordination with its Paper Recycling Conference & Trade Show, is again presenting a "Buyer of the Year" award to a mill buyer of recovered paper.

The Recycling Today Media Group, Cleveland, and paper and recycling industry consulting firm Moore & Associates, Atlanta, are conducting the nomination process and judging.

Nominees will be judged based on four criteria:

• Marketplace Feedback – Candid input from the supply community on a buyer’s procurement techniques.

• Job Performance/Market Acuity – A technical analysis of a buyer’s performance, including price performance, quality considerations and supply continuity.

• Communications Skills – How well a person gives feedback to their suppliers on rejects and downgrades, short- and long-range fiber needs and transportation issues.

Nomination forms are at www.RecyclingToday.com.

The winner will be announced at the Paper Recycling Conference and Trade Show June 27-29 at the Renaissance Waverly hotel in suburban Atlanta.

Last year’s honoree was Linda Leone of Solvay Paperboard, Syracuse, N.Y.

According to published reports, both Nucor and Steel Dynamics Inc. are reducing raw material surcharges they have been putting in place as a way to pass high scrap costs on to customers. The cuts were set to take effect in early May.

Nucor Corp., Charlotte, N.C., has said that it is cutting its surcharge for flat-rolled products by $30 per ton, beginning with shipments the first of May.

 Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI), an electric arc furnace steelmaker based in Fort Wayne, Ind., has also announced its intention to cut its surcharges for flat-rolled steel. However, the company said it is looking at raising base prices for the product because of high demand from buyers.

 SDI has indicated that it is considering a $40-per-ton base price increase on sheet steel products shipped on or after May 17, though that amount was not final as of mid-April.

 Both companies implemented surcharges earlier this year to offset the soaring price for ferrous scrap, the predominant raw material for electric arc furnace steelmakers.

 The steelmakers seem to be anticipating that ferrous scrap prices will continue to ease back down.

Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc., Portland, Ore., has reported both revenue and net income figures are up significantly from the same quarter of last year.

For the quarter ending March 31, 2004 (the second quarter of Schnitzer’s fiscal 2004 year), the company earned net income of $18.5 million on revenue of $161.6 million. In the same time period last year, the company reported net income of $8.4 million on revenue of $124.7 million.

"The second quarter of fiscal 2004 was a strong quarter for Schnitzer Steel," says Robert Philip, chairman and CEO of the company. "In fact, our quarterly net income achieved record levels, and our income from operations exceeded the forecasted range we provided in our last earnings release. The quarter’s results were led by the exceptional performance of our wholly owned Metals Recycling Business," he states.

 Schnitzer’s Metals Recycling Business reported operating income of $13.2 million for the second quarter, an improvement of $4.7 million from the same quarter last year.

The improved operating margins were primarily driven by higher average selling prices, which rose by 42 percent and by 13 percent, from the second quarter of fiscal 2003 and the first quarter of 2004, respectively, Schnitzer reports.

"Overall, markets for recycled ferrous metal were strong and rising throughout the second quarter," Philip remarks. "Demand continued to remain good in Asia, but the domestic market seemed to show the greatest improvement, as demand and prices for finished steel products rose. Partially offsetting the higher ferrous metal selling prices were sharp rises in the amounts paid for both unprocessed metal and export shipping costs."

Ferrous sales volumes amounted to 501,000 tons in the second quarter, compared to 555,000 tons in last year’s second quarter.

The Steel Manufacturing Business also returned to profitability and the Pick-N-Pull auto dismantling business also expanded in the second quarter.