CMC: Major drop in US scrap prices not “unreasonable”

Sat, 29 October 2011

During Irving, Texas-based Commercial Metals Company's (CMC) quarterly conference call, President and CEO of CMC, Joe Alvarado, acknowledged that after a drop in US domestic scrap prices in October, the expectation that scrap prices could drop as much as $40/mt in November is "unreasonable." Other global raw materials prices such as iron ore have already declined significantly in recent weeks and months, but US scrap prices have been pretty steady over the last nine months. Alvarado noted that "2011 was an unprecedented period of scrap stability," but he wouldn't count on the same scenario for 2012 given the long history of scrap pricing.

CMC's Americas Recycling segment had an operating profit of $10.8 million in Q4 2011, a $5.6 million increase compared to the same period in 2010 due to higher average selling prices and higher shipments.

Tags: scrap , USA , raw mat , North America , steelmaking , fin. Reports

sourced: steel orbis

Metalico buys land at former Bethlehem Steel site to install shredder

Saturday, 19 Feb 2011

Metalico Inc, a leading regional scrap metal recycler in US, has purchased a portion of the former Bethlehem Steel/Mittal complex in Western New York, including the abandoned galvanizing mill, from Great Lakes Industrial Development LLC, a Buffalo based real estate investment group, as the site for a new shredder.

The 44 acre parcel, at the corner of Route 5 and Lake Avenue on the border of the Town of Hamburg and Blasdell, includes a 177,500 square feet building. Metalico plans to install a heavy duty 80104 Metal Shredder inside the building, which will still provide ample additional space for other recycling activity. The location is appropriately zoned for the company's contemplated use and approvals are in place for outdoor storage and processing of scrap metals.

The planned 80" by 104" scrap metal shredder will be powered with a 4,000 HP (2,984 kW) electric motor with an operating speed of 600 RPM, suitable for processing 100 tons to 120 tons per hour of shreddable scrap. The installation will include a new state of the art downstream separation system to maximize the recovery of valuable non ferrous products.

Metalico expects to produce 120,000 tons per year of high quality shredded steel scrap by combining feedstock generated from its own yards and material available for purchase in the region. The company looks to satisfy growing demand for shred from electric arc furnace mills, export markets and other consumers.

Metalico has been operating in Buffalo since 1998 and believes that the market is underserved for shredding capacity. At present more than 2/3 of shreddable scrap regularly leaves the area.

Mr Carlos E Agüero president & CEO of Metalico said “The Galvanizing Mill site is a perfect location for our expansion of services in Upstate New York. We expect the shredder will also draw feed from our other facilities, consistent with our strategy of penetrating geographically contiguous markets and benefiting from intercompany and operating synergies that are available through consolidation.”

Metalico Inc is a holding company with operations in two principal business segments: ferrous and non ferrous scrap metal recycling and fabrication of lead-based products. Metalico currently operates twenty six recycling facilities in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, New Jersey, Texas and Mississippi and four lead fabricating plants in Alabama, Illinois, and California.

(sourced:steelguru)