Scrap Industry News

Newell Recycling LLC, Atlanta, has announced an agreement to purchase industrial property in the Port of Savannah, where it will build a shredding plant.

"This expansion is just part of a larger plan permitted by the recent robust markets for scrap metal worldwide," says Bobby Triesch, vice president of Newell Recycling.

The company cites soaring scrap metal prices and global demand for scrap metal as reasons for its expansion.

The Savannah operation will include a shredder and downstream processing technologies, such as eddy currents and metal sensors, that will allow for higher recovery rates, according to the company.

In addition to the Savannah facility, expected to be completed in the fall of 2007, Newell Recycling has also recently purchased scrap metal collection yards in the Georgia cities of Rome, Douglasville, Elberton, Conyers, Augusta and South Fulton, as well as a yard in Allendale, S.C.

These newly acquired locations are in addition to Newell’s existing yards, which include auto shredding plants in East Point and Doraville, Ga., both in metropolitan Atlanta.

The Savannah acquisition will bring the total number of Newell facilities in the Southeastern United States to 14.

"Additional expansion is expected in Georgia and elsewhere in the Southeast," says Triesch. He says the growth from two to more than a dozen facilities "fulfills [the company’s] long-term strategy developed over a number of years."

Hugo Neu Corp., New York, has entered into an agreement with Japanese trading company Mitsui & Co. to acquire Hugo Neu’s 19.9 percent share of Sims Group Ltd. for around $500 million.

Mitsui says it recognizes scrap recycling as an industrial solution to environmental problems and has set the recycling business as one of its key businesses in its medium-term management outlook. Mitsui expects to enhance this business through this acquisition.

If completed, the deal is expected to close in early May.

Upon completion, Mitsui will be granted substantially similar rights to those previously enjoyed by Hugo Neu. These include the right of Mitsui, subject to board nomination committee consideration, to nominate one director and another independent director to the Sims board for as long as Mitsui holds at least 15 percent of the ordinary shares on issue in the company.

When the sale is complete, John Neu will resign as a director of Sims Group. Completion of the sale is conditional on Mitsui procuring all necessary regulatory clearances.

More information is available at www.sims-group.com.

Steel Dynamics Inc. has reached an agreement to purchase two metals recycling facilities in the Ohio Valley area.

The facilities are Elizabethton Iron & Metal, Elizabethton, Tenn., and Johnson City Iron & Metal, Johnson City, Tenn. Combined the two yards are expected to process more than 225,000 tons of ferrous scrap per year.

These yards are expected to supply a portion of the ferrous scrap requirements to SDI’s Roanoke Bar Division in Roanoke, Va., as well as to sell ferrous and nonferrous materials on the open market.

The two yards will add to the steel scrap supplied to the Roanoke mill by Shredded Products LLC, which SDI owns. That company operates two plants in Virginia, one in Rocky Mount, the other in Montvale.

When the acquisitions are complete, the four yards are expected to supply more than half the ferrous scrap consumed by SDI’s Roanoke Bar Division.

A new strategy to improve the process of recycling obsolete vessels has been introduced in the United Kingdom.

The goal of the strategy is to ensure that government-owned and commercial ships are recycled to acceptable health, safety and environmental standards, particularly when the work is done in developing countries.

The U.K. has decided to develop its own strategy rather than wait for the outcome of international negotiations, which are likely to take several years to bring any agreement into force.

Based on current estimates, some 30 Ministry of Defense (MOD) vessels are scheduled to come out of operation by 2013. For commercial vessels, it is expected that some 400 EU flagged ships will require recycling by 2010 in light of the phase out of single hull tankers.

The strategy provides:

The full text of the strategy is available online at www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/strategy/ship.htm.

After facing opposition and several legislative bills that opposed its plan, Sims Hugo Neu has decided to withdraw its bid to build a facility in Navassa, N.C.

In a statement released on April 5, Robert Kelman, president of Sims Hugo Neu, says: "After close consultation with Navassa Mayor Eulis Willis, Sims Hugo Neu has decided to leave Navassa to pursue other opportunities for the development of our state-of-the-art material recycling facility.

"This was truly a tough decision, both personally and for our company. As we’ve said all along, we were committed to the people of Navassa, but we also left our options open to pursue other opportunities to make this recycling project a success. We continue to believe in this project and we are certain it would have been good for Navassa and all of southeastern North Carolina."

Kelman’s statement continues, "It always has been our intention in seeking this project to bring the most advanced technology to bear for the betterment of recycling and to act in the most environmentally responsible and sustainable manner. Our company is at the forefront of new advances in recycling technology and in promoting best practices in the management of our operations. We have the resources and the will to do so."

The Waterloo, Iowa, City Council has approved an investment tax credit of $55,000 for Alter Trading Corp. The credit will be spread over five years and is in response to the installation of an auto shredder at Alter’s Waterloo yard late last year.

The Iowa Department of Economic Development and Alter Trading worked out the agreement.

Alter qualified for an investment tax credit in the amount of $55,500, which was limited to 1 percent of the qualifying investment because the project was already completed at the time of the award.

Alter pledged to create five new jobs that meet the city’s definition of "high quality jobs" by having a starting wage, including benefits, of 130 percent of the average county wage.

In other news, Alter has changed the name of its scrap processing yards to Alter Metals Recycling