Nucor Acquires Florida Scrap Metal Recycler

Nucor Corp. announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, The David J. Joseph Co., has acquired the assets and business of Ocala Recycling LLC, currently a subsidiary of Blaze Metals LLC.

Ocala Recycling operates four Ocala Florida facilities, including one automobile shredder. Production at the four yards combined totals more than 100,000 tons per year. With the addition of Ocala, DJJ now operates 15 automobile shredders throughout its facilities.

DJJ will operate the Ocala Recycling facilities as part of Trademark Metals Recycling LLC.

Keith Grass, president and CEO of DJJ, says, "It is with pleasure that we welcome Ocala Recycling employees to the Nucor family. We look forward to having them on our team."

This acquisition represents another step in Nucor's previously announced plan to utilize DJJ as a platform for continued growth in the scrap processing industry and, specifically, Trademark Metals Recycling's plan to expand in North/Central Florida.

Since DJJ became a part of Nucor two years ago, it has added about 1.1 million tons of scrap processing capacity and 27 locations through five acquisitions and opened two greenfield yards.

In a note on the acquisition, the steel consulting group Steel Market Intelligence notes that while the deal is a relatively small one for the scrap metal industry, “We view this otherwise tiny transaction as holding far more importance because it’s the first deal the company has announced since September, 2008 – and we’ve been saying the past few months that we’ve sensed a thaw – and small deals precede bigger deals.”