2016 Recycling Confex Middle East: It’s complicated

Whether dealing with complex scrap materials or complicated regulations, recyclers of nonferrous metals are confronting and handling several complicated tasks in 2016 and 2017.

A series of presentations at the nonferrous session of the 2016 Recycling Confex Middle East, which took place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), in early December, portrayed separate by specific hurdles confronted by nonferrous metals recyclers around the world.

Ehsan Haji Amin, chairman of Ala International (India) Pvt. Ltd., said nonferrous metals recyclers and secondary producers in India were challenged by the lack of a dedicated government ministry advocating for their sectors. “It is the biggest problem—there is no Ministry of Recycling or other nonferrous scrap authority,” stated Amin.

Amin said he had recently been part of a Metal Recycling Association of India (MRAI) delegation to meet with representatives of India’s Ministry of Mines to try to sort through complicated issues having to do with India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT).

Clarity on radiation detection, inspections, taxes and “21 types of added shipping charges” being levied by shipping companies are among the things holding back the secondary nonferrous metals sector in India, said Amin. Most recently, the demonetization (currency expiration) policy has caused cash flow difficulties in the sector.

Despite the challenges, Amin said the rapidly growing automotive industry in India is leading to a similar boom in the overall aluminum industry, including for producers of secondary alloys.

Dealing with complicated metals is the business of Belgium-based Metallo Group, according to Nikolay Gushevilov, a purchasing manager with the company. “We are the smelter for the smelters,” said Gushevilov, referring to the ability of Metallo’s facilities in Belgium and Spain to handle slags, residues and other “complex secondary raw materials.”

He said the company has recently made a €60 million ($63 million) investment at its smelter in Belgium to provide even better tin and copper separation during its process.

Fellow panelist Mohammed Al Jawi, a senior manager of Abu Dhabi, UAE-based Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA), represented a primary aluminum smelter operator that produces slag of its own. Al Jawi said EGA is working with technology providers to develop several processes designed to “achieve the lowest waste generation” as it seeks to “understand and be a part of the circular economy.”

EGA is pilot testing processes to handle its aluminum dross and spent pot lining materials “to develop a 100% processing solution within the UAE.” The processes tested involve cement kilns and other users of mineralised fluxing agents.

Salam Al Sharif, chairman of the UAE-based Sharif Group International and president of the Bureau of Middle East Recycling, said the Middle East North Africa region is poised to increase its secondary copper production, since “more than 90% of the copper scrap generated [here] is exported to foundries outside the region.”

Sharif questioned whether China would continue to consume or import copper at its current levels for much longer, as speculation surrounds its use of the red metal as an investment. China’s demand for copper “is only half as much as you think,” he stated. “A lot has gone into warehouses as strategic reserves or collateral to banks.”

The 2016 Recycling Confex Middle East was 5-6 December at the Hyatt Regency Dubai.