Sumitomo Chemical, a chemical company based in Tokyo, has announced plans to construct a pilot facility to chemically recycle acrylic resin—polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA)—at its Ehime Works site in Niihama City, Ehime Prefecture, Japan.

According to a news release from Sumitomo Chemical, the facility is scheduled to begin pilot tests in the fall of 2022 and to start providing samples in 2023. The company also is working to develop a recycling system for PMMA from collection of used acrylic resin to recycling and reprocessing into products, aiming for commercialization of chemically recycled PMMA.

Sumitomo Chemical says acrylic resins are used in a wide range of applications, such as automotive tail lamp covers, electrical appliances, aquariums, outdoor signboards, liquid crystal displays, building materials and protective partition panels. The company reports that global demand for acrylic resins was at 1.3 million tons in 2020 and is expected to grow in the future.

In response, Sumitomo Chemical wants to develop various chemical recycling technologies in-house as well as in collaboration with other companies and academic institutions. For acrylic resin chemical recycling, the company has pursued development in collaboration with The Japan Steel Works Ltd., Tokyo, combining Japan Steel Work’s continuous plastic decomposition technology using twin-screw extruders with Sumitomo Chemical’s expertise on methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomers and acrylic resins.

Having its own basic technology to pyrolyze acrylic resin and regenerate it as MMA monomer is part of the reason Sumitomo wants to construct this pilot facility. The pilot facility will source used acrylic resin from Japan-based Nippura Co. Ltd., which produces large acrylic panels for aquariums.

To commercialize chemically recycled PMMA, Sumitomo also plans to study the development of a stable raw material procurement system, including the collection of used acrylic resin from scrapped automobiles, electrical appliances and protective partition panels. The recycled MMA monomer and acrylic resin made from it are expected to be used in fields and products such as automobiles and road sound barriers for public highways.

New Delhi-based Tata Steel says it has commissioned its first ferrous scrap shredding and recycling plant, located in the city of Rohtak in the state of Haryana, India, in the northern part of that nation.

The company says the scrap yard includes “modern and mechanized equipment such as [a] shredder, baler, material handler, etc.” The facility has been set up in collaboration with Rohtak-based M/s Aarti Green Tech Ltd., as a “build, own, operate (BOO)” partner, according to Tata.

Tata also says it has launched two new brands of ferrous scrap known as Tata FerroBaled and Tata FerroShred tied to the sale of the baled and shredded ferrous scrap produced in Rohtak.

“As part of its commitment to a sustainable tomorrow, Tata Steel has commissioned its new 500,000 metric tons per year Steel Recycling Plant at Rohtak, Haryana,” states the firm.

Tata calls it “the first such facility in India” and says scrap procured to feed the processing equipment will include end-of-life vehicles ELVs, obsolete household items, construction and demolition scrap and industrially generated scrap. The firm says its FerroHaat app will be involved in scrap procurement.

“Steel produced through the recycled route entails lower carbon emissions, resource consumption and energy utilization,” states Tata, which on its website says it has 20 million metric tons of annual crude steel capacity in India.

“Steel can be recycled again and again without losing its properties,” states Yogesh Bedi, chief of Tata’s Steel Recycling Business. “Recycling scrap ensures the closure of the circular economy loop. The brand names will give a distinct identity to the processed scrap and ensure a standardized quality product for the customer and simultaneously raise the bar of the scrap Industry.”

Adds Bedi, “This initiative was the vision of our CEO and managing director T.V. Narendran, and we are excited to see its culmination.”

Regarding the ferrous scrap branding, the steelmaker says its Tata FerroBaled and Tata FerroShred brands will offer “high cleanliness, low contamination, high bulk density, lower tramp elements and no radioactivity” and shipments will be accompanied by test certificates, calling that “another first for the scrap industry.”

The company also says the scrap grades from Rohtak “promise to provide the much-needed raw material [boost] to the Indian steel industry by making available quality processed ferrous scrap and reducing the dependency on imports.”

Whether the Tata effort will boost ferrous scrap collection in India or merely redirect it away from smaller collection, dismantling and recycling firms remains to be seen.

India, though, is a considerable buyer of imported scrap, according to statistics from the United States Census Bureau. In the first five months of this year, the nation imported 284,000 metric tons of ferrous scrap from the U.S., ranking it seventh behind Turkey, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh and Egypt among overseas buyers (excluding Canada and Mexico).

Tata Steel describes itself as having annual crude steel capacity of 34 million metric tons and as “one of the world’s most geographically diversified steel producers.” In addition to steel mills in India, it has facilities in the Netherlands, Singapore, Thailand and the United Kingdom.

Although some in the ferrous market are concerned about a September price drop, steel mill scrap purchases from July 20 to August 19 tracked by the Raw Material Data Aggregation Service (RMDAS) of Pittsburgh-based MSA Inc. show prompt grades continued to hold their value while the value of obsolete grades retreated in the August buying period.

The most recent RMDAS figures show the value of prompt grades in the past 30 days retreated by $3 per ton but stayed at $650 per ton on average. Shredded scrap in the United States, meanwhile, lost $20 per ton nationally and No. 1 heavy melting steel (HMS) retreated by $23 per ton.

The new prices reflect a sizable $163 per ton gap between the value of prompt scrap ($650) and shredded ($487) and an even wider $193 per ton gap between prompt scrap and No. 1 HMS ($457 per ton.)

Part of the discrepancy may tie into a quieter export market for obsolete grades. According to Fastmarkets AMM surveyed export pricing, mixed No. 1 and No. 1 heavy melting steel (HMS) bulk shipments off the East Coast were selling for about $40 per ton less in mid-August compared with early July.

At least one ferrous trader is unconvinced those transactions portend future weakness in the market. “I’m a bit mystified as to why those prices are weak,” Nathan Fruchter of New York-based Idoru Trading & Consulting told Recycling Today in mid-August. “There isn’t an abundance of scrap out there from what I’ve seen,” he added.

Fruchter said supply is likely even tighter in Europe, the other major supplier of ferrous scrap to nations such as Turkey and India. In Europe, August flooding was combining with a summer holiday tradition that slows down flows to European yards and the processing speed at scrap yards, said Fruchter.

Increased shipbreaking activity in 2021 helped supply an estimated $1 billion in ferrous scrap to the Indian subcontinent market in the first half of 2021, but Fruchter comments that much of that is torch-cut for reuse or rerolling, and has likely had only a minor impact on demand for imported shred and HMS.

On the demand side, the international trader sees no downturn in mill activity in Turkey, the leading destination for ferrous scrap exported from the U.S. “Margins the Turkish mills are making on rebar are quite big—actually phenomenal,” says Fruchter. “I find scrap prices are underpriced at the moment.”

Two recyclers in the Great Lakes region report steady inbound supplies of obsolete scrap, but equally steady strong demand from mills and foundries for prepared scrap. Both processors say the positive conditions in 2021 have caused them to invest to maintain and increase their processing capacity.

As the global economy heads into the final four months of the year, however, some signs of reduced steel demand and output could be looming, including steelmaking cutbacks in China that have led to reduced iron ore pricing globally.

In the domestic market, in the first two weeks of August in the U.S., weekly raw steel production fell by 0.2 percent in each of those weeks compared with the week before, according to the Washington-based American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). That does not necessarily signal a new trend, but it could tie into a slowdown in new nonresidential construction activity in the U.S. and ongoing microchip shortages within the U.S. automotive industry.

Pricing for a range of postconsumer plastic scrap continues to show strength, but one contact says he feels pricing could plateau before year-end.

The contact, who represents a company that operates material recovery facilities (MRF) in the Southwest, says pricing for polyolefins scrap, in particular, is strong and likely will “remain strong through the end of the year.”

However, he adds, “My gut tells me we are beginning to plateau. I have no exterior market indicators, but I don’t see pricing continuing to climb.”

The MRF operator says he feels that the companies reclaimers are supplying with postconsumer resin (PCR) likely will start pushing back on further attempts to raise pricing.

A trader with a postconsumer polyolefins reclaimer that has multiple locations mentions that high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottle bale pricing has flattened as of mid-August. “The last nine months have been unprecedented with regard to bale pricing and week-to-week increases.”

The availability of more virgin material also could affect scrap and PCR demand and pricing as chemical and plastics plants in Texas resume normal production following the winter storms that constrained their production. However, at least one virgin polyolefins producer still anticipates “sizable order backlogs.”

In the July 30 call regarding LyondellBasell’s second-quarter earnings, Michael McMurray, the company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said, “Polyolefin results increased by about $400 million during the second quarter as robust demand in tight markets drove higher prices and margins for polyethylene and polypropylene. We anticipate continued strength in demand and margins for our O&P (olefins and polyolefins) and Americas businesses during the third quarter. While consultants are predicting some margin compression for ethylene, recent outages have caused prices to quickly rebound and demonstrated that markets remain relatively tight. High demand, low downstream inventories and customer backlogs are expected to continue and provide ongoing support for strong polymer margins.”

Mid-August saw postconsumer polypropylene (PP) bale pricing decline by a couple of cents, the MRF operator says. He views this as an indicator that pricing is plateauing. “It doesn’t necessarily mean it will drop,” he says. “I expect it to be in the 35 to 40 cents per pound range for the remainder of the year.”

He notes that as of late December of last year, the same material was selling at 7 cents per pound.

“Imports from overseas are helping fill demand gaps in the domestic market. There is a big influx of materials from overseas taking advantage of commodity prices here, and these imports are increasing the overall supply available.” -- a trader for a postconsumer polyolefins recycler

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) pricing remains strong, with the MRF operator saying it’s selling for roughly 30 cents per pound as of mid-August. “I give it another 30 to 60 days before it plateaus,” he adds.

A Midwest-based PP and HDPE reclaimer of postconsumer and postindustrial material says scrap supplies are tight. “[It’s] definitely more challenging to get what we need for trading and compounding,” he says. “Some producers are recycling more internally,” the reprocessor says, adding that labor shortages also are affecting material flow.

He notes “historical highs” for pricing on the scrap material his company is purchasing.

The trader says scrap is flowing better than it was in the first half of the year. “Scrap availability has improved considerably from what we were seeing earlier this year. While we still see challenges sourcing materials in different regions, overall it is much better than Q1 and Q2.”

The trader adds, “Imports from overseas are helping fill demand gaps in the domestic market. There is a big influx of materials from overseas taking advantage of commodity prices here, and these imports are increasing the overall supply available.”

A reprocessor of postindustrial and postconsumer plastics with operations in the Upper Midwest mentions the effect of the semiconductor chip shortage in the automotive sector on material flow. “Automotive scrap volumes are down due to the chip shortages, which has slowed production of cars. Other industries, like housing and medical, are still strong.”

Demand for his company’s PCR and postindustrial resins remains robust. “We have been sold out for months. We expect the demand to continue through the end of the year.”

He says pricing for his company’s processed material has been rising consistently in the last four months, fueled by tight supply.

While rising transportation prices threaten to cut into his company’s profitability, he says, “We have been able to pass along the freight price increases to our customers as they all understand the situation in the market.”

The reprocessor in the Upper Midwest notes that transportation remains constricted in light of the driver shortage. “Freight prices have doubled over the past nine months.”

Availability is less of an issue for the PP and HDPE reprocessor. “Transportation is more costly but available,” he says.

The MRF operator says trucking issues are adding to his company’s cost and lead times. “Costs are enormous,” he says, citing the “pinched” labor force as the primary factor.