The supervisory board for AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group, headquartered in Wayne, Pennsylvania, has approved a capital project to double its spent catalyst recycling capacity by building a greenfield plant near its current catalyst processing plant in Cambridge, Ohio.

Financing for the plant will come from the proceeds from the sale of up to $350 million in tax-exempt bonds to be issued by the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority, which will be lent to AMG Vanadium LLC, a subsidiary of AMG. The company says it expects the bonds to be marketed at the end of June.

AMG says it produces highly engineered specialty metals and mineral products and provides related vacuum furnace systems and services to the transportation, infrastructure, energy and specialty metals and chemicals end markets.

AMG Critical Materials produces aluminum master alloys and powders, ferrovanadium, natural graphite, chromium metal, antimony, lithium, tantalum, niobium and silicon metal. AMG Technologies produces titanium aluminides and titanium alloys for the aerospace market; designs, engineers and produces advanced vacuum furnace systems; and operates vacuum heat treatment facilities, primarily for the transportation and energy industries.

AMG operates production facilities in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, the Czech Republic, the United States, China, Mexico, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka and Mozambique.

AMG Vanadium specializes in the conversion of oil refinery and power plant waste products into ferrovanadium, nickel and molybdenum primarily used by global steel producers in automotive, energy transmission and infrastructure applications.

During the Re|focus Sustainability & Recycling Summit May 20-22 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) honored the recipients of the inaugural Re|focus Sustainability Innovation Awards and announced two additional award recipients.

UBQ Materials, Tel-Aviv, Israel, winner of the Leadership in Innovation Award, is converting household waste into sustainable bio-based materials. UBQ’s propriety process converts mixed waste, including food waste, garden trimmings, paper, cardboard and mixed polymers, into UBQ material. Chris Sveen, chief sustainability officer of UBQ Materials, accepted the Leadership in Innovation Award on behalf of the company.

iMFLUX, Hamilton, Ohio, won the People's Choice Award. The company has developed a philosophy and method for injection molding called the “Green Curve” that allows the process to automatically adapt to changes in the resin. Brandon Birchmeier, technical director, accepted the award on behalf of iMFLUX.

The People's Choice Award was voted on by Re|focus attendees. All award proposals were shared with attendees, who then voted on their favorite innovation proposal during the summit.

“Announcing the final two winners of the inaugural Re|focus Sustainability Innovation Awards was a cornerstone of the 2019 Re|focus Sustainability & Recycling Summit,” says the Washington-based association’s Vice President of Sustainability Kim Holmes. “These awards can provide an example of how we are stretching the boundaries of sustainability and innovation for the plastics industry.” 

In addition to these two awards, three additional Re|focus Sustainability in Innovation Award winners were recognized during the event. Dell, Tarkett and Circular Polymers/Broadview Group received the awards in the Materials, Design and End-Of-Life Innovations categories, respectively.

The energy savings and carbon emissions reduction aspects of using scrap materials should provide a bright future for the recycling sector, but the industry may need to bolster its reputation first, according to panelists at the International Trade Council meeting of the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR). The Brussels-based BIR held its 2019 World Recycling Convention in May in Singapore.

Convention Keynote Speaker Gabrielle Walker, a corporate and organizational strategy consultant based in the United Kingdom, told the assembled recyclers “It’s fine—it’s essential” to seek profits “while addressing climate change.” In a world where younger people in particular are demanding action on climate change, recyclers already are “fixing this” stated Walker, who urged them to “just do it faster.”

At the same time the energy savings and low carbon emissions benefits of recycling should be garnering positive attention, however, irresponsible recycling practices are causing some environmental advocacy groups to demonize recycling.

In a panel discussion moderated by ITC Chairman Michael Lion of Hong Kong-based Everwell Resources Ltd., Lion stated that recyclers “are supplying a critical amount of the raw material for the [manufacturing] supply chain, in an energy-efficient way.”

Nonetheless, the Chinese government has singled out scrap imports as environmentally problematic, having issued no import licenses yet for the second half of 2019, and claiming a more thorough scrap import ban will be in place Jan. 1, 2020. Panelist Murat Bayram, who works from Germany for United Kingdom-based EMR Ltd., said the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association Recycling Metals Branch (CMRA) has “admitted that what happens after July 1 remains very unclear.”

BIR Director General Arnaud Brunet, who was hired into that role in May of 2017, said, “I arrived just at the time China announced its new laws. But I’m very proud of this industry. It is reactive and it adapts.”

New BIR President Tom Bird, who works for Hong Kong-based Chiho Environmental Group, made a similar observation, saying, “I think we’re a very resilient industry; I think we’ll find solutions as we’ve always done.” Nonetheless, Bird said the Chinese market is likely to remain important, and that additional “clarity” from its regulators would be welcome.

Lion urged BIR members and staff to stress the environmental benefits of using scrap materials. “Has China thought about the excess energy involved in using virgin materials, which use exponentially, vastly more energy?” he asked. “The politicians will play to the gallery, because this story does not get out,” he added.

Both Bird and BIR Immediate Past President Ranjit Baxi, of London-based J&H Sales International, agreed with the point, with Bird saying the BIR “has to be at the forefront” of telling the story. Stated Baxi, “We are not telling our story correctly. Our story has to be re-told time and again.”

Andy Wahl of U.S.-based TAV Holdings said recyclers should be wary of “relying on cheap labor” globally. “We have sophisticated technology and have to embrace that.” Doug Kramer of U.S.-based Kramer Metals urged those in attendance to consider the ethics of the other companies with which they trade.

Another issue harming recyclers is the labeling of scrap as “waste,” according to some panelists and attendees. Adina Renée Adler of the Washington-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) urged the delegates in attendance to return to the more than 45 countries represented “to talk to their governments about who you are; about your products,” she remarked, which are not a form of waste.

If the word “waste” is allowed to persist as a label, she warned, “There is nothing to stop the Basel Convention from turning to your product next.” Adler was referring to the United Nations-charted group’s rule-making and enforcement relative to the global trade of electronic scrap, and, potentially, plastic scrap. “Words are important,” added Kramer. “The BIR can be a critically important leader in messaging.”

Stated Lion to the BIR delegates, “You can’t just be the audience here. It is critical that everyone get engaged. There has to be an activist approach.”

The 2019 BIR World Recycling Convention & Exhibition was held May 19-22 at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore.

Producing new stainless steel from scrap should be the favored environmental option, but abundant and cheap nickel pig iron remains the raw material of choice in Asia, said a guest speaker at the Stainless Steel & Special Alloys Committee meeting at the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) 2019 World Recycling Convention in May in Singapore.

Robert Messmer, a nickel and stainless steel industry analyst with Austria-based Steel & Metals Market Research (SMR), said this decade and the one prior, production in Asia has grown to dominate the market, with mills in China alone accounting for more than 50 percent of stainless steel output in 2018.

SMR’s forecast for 2019 sees stainless output globally growing by 2.7 percent, but that growth will not be spread out evenly. Net gainers are likely to be Indonesia, where output could grow by as much as 30 percent, followed by the United States with 5.7 percent growth and China with a 3.6 percent output rise. Taiwan is expected to see a nearly 20 percent drop in output in 2019, while output could shrink between 1.6 and 3.3 percent in Europe, Japan and South Korea.

In terms of feedstock for this production, stainless steel scrap is “the lowest cost option” for mills, said Messmer, who added it is experiencing “very competitive pricing at the moment.” For manufacturers genuinely trying to hold down CO₂ emissions, Messmer said the lower carbon footprint for scrap versus mined materials helps it gain consideration as a “green technology.”

Unfortunately, there also are negative factors putting a ceiling on scrap demand. Impurities found in the stainless scrap stream means that “especially in blends, there can be quality issues” for mills.

In Asia, the abundance of nickel ore and nickel pig iron means most newer mills there have been designed “for a low scrap input” Messmer remarked. “The nickel pig iron success story has only started yet, especially in Asia,” he told BIR delegates.

Market reports from Stainless Steel & Special Alloys Committee members, read by Vegas Yang of Taiwan-based HSKU Raw Material Ltd., indicated stainless scrap flows in Europe were relatively strong in the first quarter of 2019, while scrap processors in the U.S. benefitted from “overseas demand for stainless scrap [that] made a positive start to the year.”

A summary on Asia’s market indicated the new and growing Tsingshan stainless mill in Indonesia is seeking new exports for its finished products in the face of a tariff on stainless steel coils imposed by China’s government. Mill buyers in India, meanwhile, have been reducing their demand for scrap in 2019 while also turning to nickel pig iron and ferro-nickel, mimicking melt shop habits in other parts of Asia.

The 2019 BIR World Recycling Convention & Exhibition was held May 19-22 at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore.