Schupan invests in aluminum sorting facilities

Schupan, headquartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan, has invested more than $40 million in two aluminum shredding and sorting facilities, the first of which, in Kalamazoo, will open later this month and begin production in early 2024, says Gary Curtis, Schupan president of Industrial Recycling.

The investment includes land acquisition, building construction and equipment.

Schupan selected Kalamazoo for one of the sites because it was a natural extension of its existing operations in the city, Curtis says. The Kentucky site in Logan County is near several of the company’s large consuming customers.

According to the Bowling Green (Kentucky) Daily News, which cited Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority documents, $200,000 in Kentucky Enterprise Initiative Act tax incentives were approved in July 2022 for the Schupan facility in Logan County.

The 100,000-square-foot facility in Kalamazoo will use shredding and sorting technology to prepare lower grades of obsolete aluminum scrap to supply billet makers and coil producers, Curtis says, while the Kentucky plant will focus on preparing used beverage cans (UBCs).

Aluminum producers in Kentucky include Logan Aluminum Inc., a Novelis joint venture that produces aluminum for the beverage can industry and flat-rolled aluminum for the automotive industry, as well as Novelis itself, which operates an automotive aluminum sheet manufacturing facility in Guthrie, Kentucky, and is building a recycling center nearby. Matalco, a large independent secondary aluminum billet producer headquartered in Brampton, Ontario, also operates a facility in Franklin, Kentucky, that produces aluminum ingot slabs.

The Schupan plants will be similarly equipped with sorting equipment and 1,000-horsepower shredders from St. Louis-based American Pulverizer, though the Kalamazoo plant also features a bale breaker, Curtis says. They will use sorting equipment manufactured by Germany-based Steinert GmBH, with U.S. operations in Walton, Kentucky, that includes eddy current separators, optical sorters and X-ray sorters. Hustler Conveyor Co., O’Fallon, Missouri, provided most of the conveyors for the projects, he adds. 

In a 2022 Recycling Today profile of Schupan, CEO Marc Schupan alluded to the company’s plans to expand its Schupan Industrial Recycling Services and Shupan Metals Trading business units with the addition of two new operations in Kentucky and Michigan to help to meet growing demand for recycled aluminum.

Regarding the opening of the Kalamazoo plant, he says, “This new facility represents our continued commitment to sustainability, allowing us to meet the growing global demand for green aluminum while minimizing energy consumption, emissions and environmental disruption.”

Curtis says Schupan views itself as a materials solution company. “The supply chain realizes it needs to utilize lower grades of scrap, and that fits into our wheelhouse,” he says.

The investment in these two sites allows the company to enhance its product offering by adding value to obsolete scrap. “It’s a natural progression for the company. It enhances both sides of the business,” Curtis says, noting Schupan has provided physical processing since its founding in 1968 and trading for roughly 10 years.

The company’s material sourcing team is procuring scrap for the sites, Curtis says, which are expected to have 100 million pounds of output combined, primarily in the form of 6,000-series extrusion scrap, 3,000-series scrap for sheet mills and UBCs.

The feedstock will be scrap Schupan is purchasing already, though Schupan Material Trading will need to secure additional material for the sites.

Curtis says Schupan has agreements in place with some scrap consumers already and is in discussions with others.

Prodution at the Kentucky site likely will start in the second quarter of 2024, he adds.

Schupan has 17 operations across multiple states and a growing global footprint. The company says it strives to make a positive impact on the communities it serves and uphold recycling transparency for superior, low-carbon aluminum sourcing.