Betting on growth

China’s changing import policies over the last decade have led U.S.-based recyclers to reinvest in their businesses to be able to process more recyclables domestically.

In the metals sector, that investment increasingly has come in the form of wire chopping lines to process copper- and aluminum-bearing scrap such as mixed motors, baled wire and cable and mixed shredded metal “heavies.”

Those investments have drastically changed our wire chopping list, which we publish every other year. From 2003 to 2021, the last time Recycling Today published its wire chopping list, the number of such lines installed in North America increased from 51 to 139, and those investments have continued. The U.S. alone is home to 167 lines as of the 2023 edition of our list, up from 124 on our 2021 edition of the list.

Lines we are reporting for the first time in the U.S. include M&M Recycling in Atlanta, which was installed in 2015; Grand Rapids Iron & Metal in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which was installed in 2016; Axiom Metals in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, which was installed in 2019; and A&E Auto Electric in Spartanburg, South Carolina, which was installed in 2019.

"Federal Metal is not the only company betting on the future of U.S. nonferrous metals production.”

Among the new installations we’re reporting this year is the Federal Metal installation underway in North Little Rock. It is related to the Bedford, Ohio-based company’s March announcement that it is investing approximately $17.8 million to construct and equip a facility in North Little Rock, Arkansas, to process postconsumer aluminum-copper radiators to create recycled-content metal products.

“Major investments in new mill, foundry and refining capacity are underway in the United States for the first time in generations, and it’s important the scrap industry here keeps pace to assure the domestic supply chain is well fed,” Federal Metal President and CEO Peter Nagusky says.

“Companies producing semifinished copper and aluminum will need to increase the recycled content of their products by using more scrap and less primary metal,” he adds. “The main reasons are clear: It is economically advantageous and environmentally sustainable.”

Nagusky says the investment in North Little Rock and the purchase of the Pennsylvania site “are made with conviction in the future growth and competitiveness of U.S. nonferrous metals manufacturing.”

Federal Metal is not the only company betting on the future of U.S. nonferrous metals production. It is joined by host of other companies that have invested in scrap processing capacity to feed the growing volume of low-carbon aluminum and copper production in the U.S.