The steel manufacturer Nucor Corp., headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., has signed a stock purchase agreement to acquire the membership interests of Skyline Steel LLC and its subsidiaries from ArcelorMittal for about $605 million. Upon completion of the deal, Skyline Steel will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Nucor and will maintain its headquarters in Parsippany, N.J.

"We are extremely excited to announce the acquisition of a company that has been a leading partner in growth in piling production for the last 20 years," says Daniel DiMicco, chairman and CEO of Nucor Corp. "With its considerable distribution network, excellent customer service and strong technical support, Skyline is well positioned to continue to grow in the piling and foundation products area in North America. The Skyline organization has been a distributor of Nucor's piling products for more than two decades. Now, more than ever, they will help drive our success from within the Nucor family.

Skyline distributes products to service applications such as marine construction, bridge and highway construction, heavy civil construction, storm protection, underground commercial parking and environment containment projects in the infrastructure and construction industries.

Skyline's flagship products include hot rolled and cold formed sheet piles, H-piles and pipe piling. The company's processing and fabricating capabilities include spiralweld pipe piling, rolled and welded pipe piling, cold formed sheet piling and threaded bar in Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Ohio, Illinois and Washington.

Alcoa, Pittsburgh, has broken ground on a greenfield aluminum lithium facility in Lafayette, Ind. The new facility will be built adjacent to Alcoa’s existing facility in Lafayette.

From left to right, Joe Seaman, CEO, Greater Lafayette Commerce; Eric Roegner, President, Alcoa Forgings and Extrusions; Tony Roswarski, Mayor, City of Lafayette; Jacques Vanier, COO, Alcoa Forgings and Extrusions; Jim Robinson, Director, District 7, United Steelworkers.

The company is investing $90 million on the 115,000-square-foot expansion that will produce more than 20,000 metric tons of aluminum lithium per year. The plant will be capable of casting round and rectangular ingot for rolled, extruded and forged applications.

The newly patented aluminum lithium alloys, introduced by Alcoa in 2011, will allow airframers to build dramatically lighter and lower-cost airplanes versus composite alternatives, the company says. Alcoa adds that the aluminum lithium product will provide the best strength-to-weight performance in Alcoa's aerospace alloy portfolio, combined with better stiffness and corrosion resistance. The alloys are used in extrusions, forgings and sheet and plate applications across aircraft structures, including airplane wings and fuselage elements.

"Our primary role as aerospace solution providers is to help the OEMs reduce fuel consumption per seat mile," says Eric Roegner, president, Alcoa Forgings and Extrusions. "We have a long history working with aerospace customers to help new aircraft meet demanding new missions and provide optimum solutions for both the engine and airframe structure. Our aluminum lithium supply chain will be the premier operation in the world and this specialty alloy will be flying on the next generation of aircraft."

Production of its first aluminum lithium is planned by the end of 2014.

The project is being supported by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. "We are very grateful to our community and state partners for their support in this significant project that will provide continued growth and good jobs now and into the future," says Roegner.

SITA UK, the U.K.-based waste management firm, has been granted permission by U.K. and Dutch government agencies to supply up to 600,000 metric tons of alternative fuel derived from residual waste to help power homes and businesses in Amsterdam.

Through the program, SITA UK will supply its SITA Northeastern Europe Waste Services’ facility (SITA NEWS) with energy to power residences in Amsterdam. SITA NEWS consists of SITA Belgium, SITA Germany, SITA Netherlands and SITA Luxembourg.

Through the program, SITA NEWS will supply Amsterdam’s Waste and Energy Co. (AEB), with fuel from residual waste that comes from SITA’s waste management activities in the U.K.

David Palmer-Jones, CEO of SITA UK, says, "Supplying SITA NEWS and, ultimately, AEB with residual waste from the U.K. makes good environmental sense while there is still a lack of recovery facilities in this country. We are helping to fuel one of the most efficient recovery facilities that need RDF (refuse derived fuel) at a time when facilities of this caliber are still waiting to come online in the U.K.

"We anticipate that demand for this material will also grow in the U.K. We already have an agreement to supply CEMEX’s facility in Rugby (U.K.) with SRF (solid recovered fuel) over the next few years and will continue to pursue partnerships such as this in the U.K.

"We are also investing around £1.4 billion (US$2.264 billion) over the next three years in new recycling and resource management infrastructure in this country. In 2011 alone we received planning permissions for over two million metric tons of new recycling and resource management capacity and SITA UK is working hard to get this built and ready to begin processing material."

A ship chartered by SITA NEWS will make three trips a week from Tilbury, U.K., to Amsterdam with the RDF. The material will be delivered to AEB’s facility.

The U.K.’s Environment Agency and Dutch Environment Authority, Agentschap NL, have granted SITA UK a three-year trans-frontier shipment (TFS) permit to provide the fuel to SITA NEWS in the Netherlands. The TFS is valid from May 1, 2012, to April 30, 2015.

"The length of this TFS permit reflects the trust which the authorities have in our ability to responsibly source, transport and deliver this quantity of material. It is going to one of the leading facilities in Europe in terms of efficiency, and gives them a much-needed supply from a guaranteed source. We have a great relationship with our sister companies in Europe and are delighted to be working with them to help put waste to good use," Jones says.

The RDF shipped to AEB will be a mix of municipal and industrial and commercial waste from England. The waste will be processed at SITA UK sites, recyclables will be removed and the residual material will be trommelled and shredded before being transported to the Netherlands.

The Newark Group, a Cranford, N.J.-based collector of secondary fibers and manufacturer and converter of 100-percent-recycled paperboard, has formalized its Operational Excellence Team (OpEx). The company reports that the OpEx team’s focus already is yielding improvements in both operations and cost efficiency.

The new group is headed by Vice President Jeff Masciadrelli and team members Tim Benningfield and Tracy Willis. It will operate under the direction of Newark’s senior management.

The goal of the company’s OpEx team is to drive significant operational improvements and lower costs across the North American businesses of The Newark Group using concepts and principles of the Toyota Production System, LEAN and Six Sigma.

According to Frank Papa, president and CEO of The Newark Group, “The speed at which this team has already been operating bodes exceptionally well for the future of our efforts and of our company.”

Masciadrelli joined The Newark Group in February 2012 and previously was director of the Global Enterprise Lean Sigma program at Avery-Dennison Corp.

Benningfield joined The Newark Group in March with experience in-plant management, LEAN, TPS and Akebono Production System implementations with companies such as Fruit of the Loom, Toyota Tsusho, Akebono and Tomkins Building Products.

Willis is a certified LSS Master Black Belt with experience in process excellence, quality systems and production management. Prior to joining The Newark Group, Willis operated his own consulting group focusing on Six Sigma, LEAN and Apollo Root Cause Analysis, and was a National Examiner for both the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the Shingo Prize for Manufacturing Excellence.

“This is the right team, and this is the right time,” says Papa. “If the small but significant gains we have already seen are any indication, this team has the ability to transform our company and our effectiveness on just about every level.”