The Alvance Aluminium business unit of United Kingdom-based GFG Alliance reportedly has been given a regulatory green light to add recycled-content aluminum casting capacity at a site in Scotland.

An online report from the BBC indicates a government body in Scotland has approved plans for the casting plant to be situated next to the primary aluminum Lochaber smelter near Fort William, Scotland. “Alvance Aluminium will use recycled materials, along with metal from the smelter, in a new casting factory,” writes the BBC.

Alvance plans to produce up to 100,000 metric tons of cast aluminum billets at the new plant that will find eventual homes in the construction industry, according to the media organization.

The casting plant was proposed in late 2020 for the site. Previously, GFG indicated it planned to build an aluminum wheel factory there instead, but the company backed away from that plan after ripple effects (possibly tied to Brexit) reduced auto assembly prospects in the U.K.

The Turkish owner of a former UPM newsprint mill in the United Kingdom reportedly has submitted a proposal to a local council to initiate a project to convert the mill’s capacity to containerboard and tissue production.

An online report on the Liverpool, U.K.-based Business Live website says Turkey-based Eren Paper Ltd., which this May bought the facility in Shotton, Wales, plans to convert the mill’s newsprint capacity to the production of containerboard and tissue products.

Operating paper machines to make those products may well allow Eren Paper to use several grades of recovered fiber. The Business Live website indicates the “scoping request” submitted to the Flintshire Council in Wales acknowledges that an analysis of the U.K. paper industry “shows that the U.K. is currently a net importer of both containerboard products and tissue products, while at the same time being a net exporter of recycled [scrap] paper.”

The request goes on to state, according to Business Live, “The proposed development is intended to close both these gaps by increasing production at the site, thereby allowing the use of more recycled paper, with the proposed new cardboard paper production facility using 100 percent recycled paper. At the same time, switching production from the declining newsprint market to the new production facility will allow the U.K. as a whole to be more self-supporting in these materials, reducing reliance on external supply.”

The documents were submitted in part to receive permission to engage in some demolition work at the site. In addition to adding or converting one or more new paper machines, Eren Paper also mentions installing a new combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Shotton.

The Place North West website, based in Manchester U.K., says the mill sits on some 148 acres of land, and that Eren Paper plans to construct 900,000 square feet of manufacturing space for the tissue operations. That report also indicates an existing materials recovery facility (MRF), operated by UPM, will remain on-site.

The government of Pakistan has lowered the sale tax rate on ferrous scrap among recent revisions to its tax code.

In a list of tax code amendments posted Sept. 22 by the Karachi, Pakistan-based Business Recorder website, importers will now pay a 14 percent tax on “re-meltable scrap if imported by steel melters.”

The previous tax rate was 17 percent, and media reports indicate some steelmakers and users had been asking the government to lower it to 5 percent.

The move to 14 percent is listed as an incentive to the steel sector, along with a reduced sales tax on steel products of 0.25 percent “for distributors, retailers etc.” in the steel sector.

In the first half of 2021, the United States shipped 311,000 metric tons of ferrous scrap to Pakistan, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). That placed Pakistan behind its neighbor India (332,000 metric tons) and Bangladesh (622,000 metric tons), which also is on the Indian subcontinent.

Retired liquid bulk tanker vessels are keeping ship dismantlers busy, according to an analysis by a shipping industry trade publication. With China’s steel industry slowing after years of growth, most of those tankers are finding a home on the Indian subcontinent.

“The lackluster tanker market is motivating ship owners to sell some of their vintage tonnage for scrap,” writes Hellenic Shipping News in a Sept. 22 article. The publication quotes a brokerage of retired ships as saying China’s slowing steel sector has made Pakistan the winning bidder more often than not for ship dismantling and scrappage services.

“For the time being, Pakistan is now at the forefront of their competitors and certainly appear willing to outbid their counterparts for any available larger tanker unit. India looks set to seek tonnage,” London-based ship brokerage Clarkson Platou Hellas tells Hellenic Shipping News.

The publication and brokerage list recent winning bids for two large tankers, with one going to Pakistan and another to Bangladesh. Adds Hellenic Shipping News, “Bangladesh seems to have been able to attract once again several candidates, despite the presumed pressure that domestic players are facing over the current offered prices and the already amassed stockpile [of vessels].”