The China-based UPT Group Inc. says it has completed a deal to purchase a vacant building in Montezuma, Georgia, in Macon County. The company expects to undertake repairs at the site to convert it into a facility that will be able to process plastic scrap into pellets.

The 400,000-square-foot building, formerly a Southern Frozen Foods Fresh Plant, sits on about 18 acres of land.

“This deal is a cooperative effort between UPT Group Inc., Montezuma, and China’s XTJ Plastic Recycling Inc.,” says Gerald Beckum, executive director of the Development Authority of Macon County. “Locally, the county, the city of Montezuma and the Development Authority of Macon County have worked for the better part of two years to make this a reality.” Beckum says the company expects to have the facility operational by the end of the year.

Song Lin, CEO of UPT Group, says the company plans to renovate the property and install equipment to wash, degrease, sanitize and pelletize recycled plastic. Water used in the plastic processing stages also will be recycled, causing minimal use of the city’s sewage system, according to Lin.

Lin says the company will be recycling LDPE (low-density polyethylene) and HDPE (high-density polyethylene) plastic scrap from postindustrial, postconsumer and agricultural sources. Regarding agricultural plastic scrap, Lin says he recently met with a Florida supplier and saw as much as 15,000 tons of plastic in storage awaiting a home.

He estimates that when the company is running with its eight proposed lines, it will be able to pelletize about 2,000 tons of plastic scrap per month. The pelletized plastics will be shipped to China, where, according to Lin, it will be used by XTJ Plastic Recycling to manufacture plastic piping, among other products. The company will be shipping the pelletized plastics from the Port of Savannah in Georgia.

Lin says the quality of the reprocessing equipment being installed makes him confident the quality of the material produced at the plant will allow it to ship the pellets into China despite its tight standards on such materials.

Although scrap initially will be trucked in, Beckum says there is an idled CSX rail line on the property that could be reconnected.  Whatever scrap materials UPT does not reprocess into pellets it will sell as scrap back onto the market, adds Beckum.

ND Paper, the Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois-based subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Limited, has announced it will invest $300 million over the next two years into its mills in Wisconsin and Maine. Those mills, in Rumford, Maine and Biron, Wisconsin, were purchased from Canada-based Catalyst Paper in June 2018.

The company says its strategic review of the new mills led it to “a multi-faceted investment strategy that diversifies the United States mills’ product mix, increases their overall production capacity, and fundamentally improves their viability for generations to come.”

The Rumford location will see an anticipated $111 million invested to finance two projects, including the construction of a greenfield recycled-content pulp facility. The pulp line will add approximately 1,200 air-dried metric tons per day of manufacturing capacity to the site, according to ND Paper.

Also installed in Maine will be a shoe press on a paper machine there, designed to increase the machine’s production capacity by approximately 20 percent.

“I want to thank ND Paper for its continued investment in Maine,” says Gov. Paul R. LePage. “This $111 million investment will lead to the creation of 50 new jobs, and is a great example of ND Paper's commitment to improving the overall competitiveness and stability of the Rumford mill. The investment also is likely to help retain jobs for the Rumford mill’s 650 current employees.

In Wisconsin, the Biron Division will commission several projects at a cost of $189 million. Those projects include the conversion of a paper machine to containerboard products and the construction of a two-line greenfield recycled-content pulp facility. The pulp lines will add approximately 1,900 air-dried metric tons of capacity to the site.

Also being funded is the construction of a water treatment and fiber recovery plant, a package boiler to provide energy, storage facilities for raw materials and a finished goods warehouse.

“I want to commend ND Paper for making the decision to expand their operations in Wisconsin,” says State Senator Patrick Testin of Stevens Point, Wisconsin. “These major projects will help retain 350 family supporting jobs and create another 27 new jobs right here in our area.”

ND Paper says it is working in collaboration with both the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and the Maine Department of Economic Development on the two projects.

“We invest for the long-term,” states Ken Liu, ND Paper’s CEO. “While strongly supporting our global fiber strategy, this suite of projects also dramatically improves the sustainability of these historic mills. Not only are we developing a U.S.-based containerboard business, we’re also reinforcing our commitment to existing printing and writing and specialty customers with world-class, cost-competitive assets.”

Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Limited describes itself as the world’s largest recovered paper-based paper manufacturing company in the world. In addition to its U.S. mills, Nine Dragons has 39 packaging paperboard and printing and writing paper machines operating in China and Vietnam.

Brunswick, Ohio-based Best Process Solutions Inc. (BPS) says its new bulk bag fillers are designed to fill any size bulk bag with high accuracy while offering what it calls years of trouble-free maintenance.         

BPS’s Model BBF loader features an inflatable fill head that offers a dust-free seal when loading; a dust port with dust cartridge; and manually adjustable bag supports for varying bag heights, which the company says are ideal for low ceiling heights. BPS says other options also are available.

BPS manufactures what it calls a complete line of custom-engineered, bulk processing equipment and systems. With more than 100 years’ combined experience, the company serves a range of dry processing industries, including the recycling and aggregates sectors.

Above: Edward Meir of Commodity Research Group addresses the BIR Nonferrous Division meeting.

Edward Meir, director of the U.S.-based Commodity Research Group, said tariffs “will create more problems than they will solve,” adding that they are “a very blunt instrument and can give a lot of unintended consequences.”

Meir addressed the Nonferrous Division Meeting at the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) World Recycling Convention Round-Table Sessions in London in early October.

Describing the Trump administration’s trade policy as “dangerous and built on faulty assumptions,” Meir said the tariffs could “chill” business investment and lead to the cancellation of projects.

 “U.S. scrap has been a big casualty” of the most recent round of tariff activity, which saw China retaliate to U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods by imposing tariffs on imports of U.S. scrap, among other goods.

Looking ahead to 2019, Meir predicted aluminum prices would trade between $1,910 and $2,380 per metric ton, assuming a resolution of the Rusal issue. (The U.S. threatened to placed sanctions on the Russian aluminum company starting Oct. 23.) As for copper, he forecast a price range of $5,600 to $7,200 per metric so long as there is some form of “truce” in the current trade war.

In his review of world markets, Mogens Christensen of H.J. Hansen Recycling Industry Ltd. in Denmark said the U.S.-China dispute was damaging scrap trade into China. China’s import restrictions and this ongoing trade war with the USA have translated into more American aluminum scrap finding its way to Mexico’s secondary smelters, he said. Meanwhile, India’s importers have been “hit hard” by the decline in the value of the rupee.

Prefacing a panel discussion on the topic of “Politics and recycling: a new era,” the session’s moderator Murat Bayram of European Metal Recycling Ltd. said rising protectionism has contributed to the “earthquake” currently rocking the scrap sector. He reiterated the view expressed by divisional President David Chiao of Uni-All Group Ltd., Atlanta, that China will “very likely close its doors” to nonferrous scrap imports by the end of 2020.

Michael Lion of Everwell Resources Ltd. in Hong Kong acknowledged the “extremely unpredictable” situation that currently prevails, with “too much scrap in the wrong places.”

The secondary industry in the USA cannot cope with the material now available, and some companies have been left with no choice but to move volumes for lower prices to maintain cash flow, said Andy Wahl of TAV Holdings Inc., Atlanta.  

Dhawal Shah of Metco Marketing (India) PVT Ltd., Mumbai, identified the automotive sector as his country’s largest consumer of secondary materials, with its demand growing at some 10 percent annually. However, he warned against regarding India as the natural beneficiary of the changes taking place in China.

Bayram said the recycling industry “deserves praise for its contribution in reducing carbon emissions,” hailing the BIR-led Global Recycling Day as “a good way to tell the story that recycling is not an option but a necessity.” However, he added that the industry is experiencing “disruption” rather than the “functioning markets” that it needs to perform its valuable role.