B.L. Duke has launched transportation division

Scrap metal firm provides stevedoring services with company.


In the last year, B.L. Duke, a Chicago-based scrap metal recycling firm, launched a new subsidiary called B.L. Duke River Transport, which will focus on stevedoring services with indoor and outdoor storage.

With the newer company, B.L. Duke says it can transload finished steel products, including coils, bar stock, rebar, wire and structural steel, to railcars or trucks from barges coming from mills along the river systems and imports.

B.L. Duke River Transport is located at the former Gerdau Rolling Mill in Joliet, Illinois, next to B.L. Duke’s scrap metal plant, which has rail and barge terminals. B.L. Duke River Transport sits on 30 acres and includes a 250,000-square-foot warehouse.

The company says having a division focused on transportation services helps expand its barge and rail services, which allows it to control its own logistics costs and diversify its business, giving the company an additional revenue source.

“We’re always looking for new ways to strengthen our services and improve cost-savings for our customers,” says Lou Plucinski, B.L. Duke’s president and CEO in a news release about establishing the division. “This expansion allows us to help link mills with our customers and suppliers and illustrates just one more way we’re revolutionizing the recycling industry.”

Plucinski adds, “With trucking rates and availability becoming increasingly inhibitive, we will continue to grow our barge and rail services not only as a means to control our own logistics costs but now as a diversification strategy and new revenue source.”

According to B.L. Duke, the company increased its sales revenue by 65 percent and added 32 employees to its team in 2017. The company also was a finalist for the 2018 Fastmarkets AMM Steel Excellence Award in the Scrap Company of the Year category.