Upstate Shredding, headquartered in Owego, N.Y., has purchased a metal shreedder and downstream sorting system for its scrap yard and port facility in Albany, N.Y. The company opened the facility in August 2013 and says it expects the shredder to be operational by April 18, 2014.

Upsate Shredding says the project will represent a total investment of $25 million and is being funded privately by the company. Adam Weitsman, president of Upstate Shredding - Ben Weitsman, says the company did not seek government assistance on the project.

“We’ve spent years building our metals recycling network in New York and Pennsylvania into a highly efficient system,” Weitsman says. “We have ambitious goals for our Albany yard, and this shredder is the next step in putting that plan of expansion into motion.”

Upstate Shredding adds that it also expects to spend several million dollars in the region over the next several years to create and develop a network of recycling facilities to feed the new shredder.

“It took us years to build up our feeder yard system around our Owego shredder, and this new shredding location, in addition to our shredder in New Castle (Pennsylvania), which will be operational in the second quarter of 2014, will be the launching pad of the next phase of our expansion,” Weitsman says. “We’ve examined the markets surrounding the Albany facility, and we plan to make several new acquisitions of scrap yards in the region to develop the network of yards to feed the Albany shredder.”

The shredder and downstream system will be built by Wendt Corp., Buffalo, N.Y. Although smaller than Upstate’s Owego shredder, the company says that several technological advances to ensure maximum recycling value have been included. The advances include separation technologies to recover wire, plastics, nonferrous metals and other materials such as fines. Recent advances in shredding technology also will make it possible to divert even more recyclables from landfills, the company says.

“We are pleased to have been selected by Upstate Shredding to construct a new state-of-the-art shredding plant at the Albany port facility,” says Tom Wendt Jr. of Wendt Corp. “It’s a pleasure to be part of Adam Weitsman’s continued growth and success.”

In May 2013 Upstate announced the site of its second shredder, which was being installed in New Castle. Weitsman acquired the New Castle scrap yard, formerly Ferromet, in December 2012. Since acquiring the facility, Upstate has invested several million dollars to upgrade the facility. The investments include demolishing old buildings and erecting new ones, full paving of the facility and installing new equipment. 
 

Salam Sharif, president and CEO of Sharif Metals International, delivered the welcome speech at the 21st International Recycled Aluminum Conference held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) in early November 2013.

Sharif, whose company is based in Dubai and Sharjah in the UAE, says his speech involved giving “commendation to the great wisdom and farsighted leadership of the UAE, which has transformed the country from a small pearl-fishing community to one with a ‘global city’ that has steadily grown to become the business hub of the Gulf region.”

The recycling company CEO says the UAE has benefited from “major diversification programs in energy and renewable energy, industrial, construction and infrastructure, mining and metal manufacturing, financial services and hospitality and tourism—all during the last two decades.”

The welcome address also touched upon the topic of Dubai’s boom continuing during and after the Arab Spring and how the UAE and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies have “stepped up to the challenges,” with the region now considered to have one of the fastest growing economies of the world. GCC nations also can consider being the “Middle East’s aluminum hub,” said Sharif.

According to Sharif, who also is president of the Bureau of Middle East Recycling and Middle East Ambassador to the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), the aluminum recycling event was well-attended and included a “field trip” by more than 20 delegates to a Sharif Metals aluminum recycling plant.









 

Kobelco Construction Machinery USA has announced plans to break ground on its new U.S. headquarters in Katy, Texas, in December 2013.

The decision to start construction on the headquarters follows what the company calls the successful relaunch of its crawler excavator line as an independent brand earlier in 2013. The r-launch has been accomplished in part by the company signing more than 50 dealers during the first six months of 2013.

Kobelco has signed a nine-year lease with plans to occupy the headquarters building by September 2014. The 101,300-square-foot facility will serve as Kobelco’s North American headquarters as well as a training center and parts distribution location for the company’s business in the United States, Canada and Latin America.

“We couldn’t be more pleased with the early results of our brand re-launch,” says Pete Morita, president and CEO of Kobelco Construction Machinery USA. “In just a short time period we’ve hired some of the industry’s most qualified personnel, opened our temporary headquarters and parts warehouse and partnered with our dealers to provide quality, competitively priced products. All of these initiatives are just the beginning of what we have planned for the North American marketplace.”

According to Ron Hargrave, vice president of sales and marketing for Kobelco Construction Machinery USA, “The new facility being built will allow us to continue our rapid growth. We are pleased to once again be offering our products as an independent brand and are working diligently to ensure Kobelco positions itself to gain continued market share moving forward.”

The staff of the Recycling Today Media Group would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Spend time with family and close friends, eat too much food, watch too much football and enjoy yourself.

And, in tribute to Thanksgiving, the following video clip.