METALS
Global steel production increases in October
The World Steel Association has reported global crude steel production for the 65 countries reporting figures to it totaled 134 million tonnes in October 2013, an increase of 6.6% compared to the same time last year.
Leading the way was China, which reported monthly crude steel production of 65.1 million tonnes, a 9.2% increase from last October. Other Asian countries of note include Japan, which produced 9.5 million tonnes of crude steel in October, a 7.7% increase over October 2012; and South Korea, which posted crude steel production of 5.9 million tonnes for the month, a 5.2% increase from the same time last year.
In the European Union, Germany produced 3.8 million tonnes of crude steel in October 2013, an increase of 1.9% compared to October 2012; Italy produced 2.2 million tonnes, a drop of 10.1% from last October; Spain’s 1.4 million tonnes was a 23.9% increase from last October; and France’s crude steel production of 1.3 million tonnes was down 1.8% from the same time last year.
Turkey’s crude steel production for October 2013 was 3.1 million tonnes, up by 6.9% from October 2012; Russia produced 5.7 million tonnes of crude steel, a decrease of 1.5% compared to the same month 2012; and Ukraine’s production was 2.6 million tonnes in October 2013, an increase of 1.2% on October 2012.
The United States produced 7.4 million tons of crude steel in October 2013, an 8.7% increase compared to October 2012.
The crude steel capacity utilization ratio for the 65 countries in October 2013 was 77.5%, a 2.5% improvement from October 2012, although the figures for the month are down 1.8% from the prior month.
METALS
ArcelorMittal, Nippon Steel acquire ThyssenKrupp plant
ArcelorMittal, based in Luxembourg, and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. (NSSMC), Toyko, have entered into a 50/50 joint venture partnership to acquire ThyssenKrupp Steel USA (TK Steel USA) from Thyssen-Krupp for $1.55 billion. The steel processing plant in the U.S. state of Alabama has annual capacity of 5.3 million tonnes, with hot rolling, cold rolling, coating and finishing lines.
Included in the deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, is a six-year agreement for the companies to purchase 2 million tonnes of slab steel per year from ThyssenKrupp CSA, an integrated steel mill in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The remaining slab balance needed at the Calvert plant will be sourced from ArcelorMittal plants in the U.S., Brazil and Mexico. ArcelorMittal also will be responsible for marketing the products on behalf of the joint venture.
The goal of the joint venture, the partners say, is to serve the automotive sheet market in North America, especially in the southern U.S. According to a press release from Nippon Steel, the move will allow the company to meet the growing need for ultra-high-tensile-strength and hot-rolled steel products.
IN MEMORIAM
Industry veteran
Larry Sax Larry Sax, a long-time nonferrous scrap trader and Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) officer, died in mid-December at the age of 80 near his home in Ontario, Canada.
Sax grew up as part of scrap processing and trading family with operations in the Boston area, rising up through the ranks at J. Sax & Co.
In a career that spanned several decades, Sax most often worked in the aluminium industry, for companies including Barmet Aluminum Corp., Castech Aluminum and Easco Aluminum, all based in the U.S.
Throughout his career Sax was heavily involved in recycling trade organizations, including the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI), one of its predecessor organizations the National Association of Recycling Industries (NARI) and the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR). At the BIR, Sax spent several years on the Non-ferrous Division board of directors, including eight years as its president.
From 2008 to early 2012, Sax also worked as an editorial consultant for Recycling Today Global Edition magazine. In that role, Sax talked to recyclers and traders around the world to gauge business conditions within the recycling industry.
Sax is survived by his wife Mariette Rita and son David, who also entered the recycling industry and currently works for Commercial Metals Co., Irving, Texas.
Those seeking to make a donation in Larry’s honor can contact the Association for Soldiers of Israel at +416.783.3053 or Canadian Hadassah WIZO at +416.630.8373.
EVENTS
Recycling Today will co-host three events in Dubai
The Recycling Today Media Group and Media Fusion are hosting three recycling events in early March in Dubai. All three events take place at the JW Marriott Marquis hotel.
For the third consecutive year the organizations will host the Paper & Plastics Recycling Middle East Conference, geared for paper and plastics collectors, processors, sellers and buyers. The event is set for 4-5 March 2013.
“It is again our privilege to welcome recyclers and government officials from the Gulf Cooperation Council region and around the world to enjoy Dubai and make new connections that will help them and the industry to prosper,” says Dr. Kayyum Ali, CEO of Media Fusion.
The publishers also will host the Middle East Metals Recycling Conference, which takes place 2-3 March, 2014. Event sessions will examine global commodity markets for scrap metal, including copper, aluminium, ferrous, stainless steel, precious metal and electronic scrap. Attendees will also receive updates on regulatory issues pertaining to international trade as well as processing trends.
“We’re thrilled to cooperate with the team at Waste & Recycling Middle East to again offer this event for the active metals recycling and trading community in the Middle East,” says Jim Keefe, group publisher of the Recycling Today Media Group.
The conferences feature exhibit areas and networking opportunities in addition to presentations and interactive discussions.
New for 2014 is the End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) Workshop, which takes place March 3. The half-day event is designed to provide local and global insights on the ELV recycling process.
Details are at http://middleeast.paperrecyclingconference.com and http://www.metalsrecyclingme.com.
METALS
BIR Autumn Round-Tables: ferrous markets challenge
Christian Rubach, president of the BIR (Bureau of International Recycling) Ferrous Division and an executive with Germany’s TSR Recycling, (pictured at right) sketched out a less-than-optimistic outlook for ferrous scrap markets moving into the end of the year during the BIR’s Autumn Roundtable, held in Warsaw, Poland, Oct 27-29, 2013.
Rubach said that when the BIR was last in Warsaw there was significant optimism about the European steel industry, especially in Poland.
“Six years ago the steel industry worldwide was booming and outlook was great,” Rubach said. “Today, six years later we have been through the so-called Lehmann crisis in 2008/2009 and again after a year of fantastic recovery in 2010 many of us feel as if we are in the next crisis.”
For Europe, the ferrous market is even more daunting. In Southern Europe, Rubach said, the situation is very bad and “even if we see now signs of stabilization this only means that it is not getting any worse.”
As difficult as the ferrous scrap market is, Rubach added that the steel industry in the European Union and other OECD (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries is in even worse shape. He noted that perhaps only two steel companies on the European continent are now profitable.
In analyzing markets in various regions of the world, Blake Kelly with Sims Metal Management, with U.S. headquarters in New York, noted that prices for a host of ferrous grades in the United States are holding at existing levels, despite the fact that analysts and market watchers earlier in the fall had expected prices for ferrous scrap to slump.
For China, Kelly said traders were expecting a market rebound for steel and raw materials after the national holiday, but imported scrap activity has been minimal as more domestic scrap supply is available.
In Korea, the ferrous market has been active, Kelly noted. Domestic heavy melt steel (HMS) declined a bit, though steel production in Korea has picked up.
In Taiwan, container scrap purchases have continued and there also has been bulk cargo activity in recent weeks. The high price of imported Japanese scrap generally causes steelmakers to seek other origins.
India has been one of the bigger problem spots. The weak rupee (India’s currency), has caused imported scrap to become more expensive, which has priced some shippers out of the market, Kelly commented.
Discussing the ferrous markets in Russia and the Ukraine, Andrey Moiseenko with Ukrmet Ltd., Ukraine, said the Russian market in late autumn was well balanced and stable. Prices have been holding up fairly well, though collection of the material, similar to other regions of the world, is down.
PLASTICS
UK plastics recycler expands
Closed Loop Recycling has announced plans to significantly expand its high-density polyethylene (HDPE) recycling capabilities to meet the growing demands of the dairy industry, which is increasingly requiring higher levels of recycled HDPE in its milk bottles.
The U.K.-based company, which describes itself as the first company to recycle both PET (polyethylene terephthalate) and HDPE plastic bottles into food-grade material, is implementing an expansion that it says will double the supply of recycled HDPE to the U.K. market, more than meeting the expected demand from the dairy industry. The company says the investment will increase capacity at its Dagenham, U.K. plant to 55,000 tonnes per year.
“Recycled milk bottles are a massive win for the circular economy,” says Chris Dow, CEO of Closed Loop Recycling. “The increased demand for recycled content is an example of the whole industry working together.”
KERBSIDE
MRF design pondered at Warsaw conference
Keith Freegard, director of the U.K.-based resource recovery firm Axion Consulting, discussed steps companies can take to ensure that newly built materials recycling facilities (MRFs) can meet the needs of future opportunities during the recent Paper Recycling Conference & Trade show, held in Warsaw in late October.
Freegard noted that incorporating “future-proof” design concepts into the layout and operating principles of new MRFs is vital if managers are to improve quality and maximize profits.
Concepts such as planning for expansion, predicting changes in feed composition and installing good management information systems are other essentials for ensuring a MRF can meet future recycling and processing challenges, he added. With most paper collected via commingled systems, there’s greater pressure on primary sorting MRF operators to keep other scrap materials, such as plastics, out of paper streams to ensure high quality output and value for the processing mills, Freegard said. “There’s a great need in this industry to do a more consistent, higher quality job of the in-feed sortation, as any contaminants can create problems.” His presentation focused on design, knowledge and skills that help MRF operators.
“Efficient design takes account of the specification and mix of [scrap] materials changing over time. Building in expansion space for additional units in the future, such as longer conveyors with enough room to add extra sorting systems, means you don’t have to completely change your plant layout,” he explained.
PLASTICS
EuPR reports growth in plastics recycling
Plastics Recyclers Europe says the European plastics recycling industry is showing steady growth. The association pointed to the steady growth in plastics recycling efforts during its annual meeting, held Nov. 21-22 in Amsterdam.
During the event EuPR reported that the association recently broke through the 100-member level and now has 114 companies. Additionally, the association’s management committee has been reconfirmed by its members, and Ton Emans, president of the association, has been re-conducted for a new mandate.
Emans says, “The coming years will bring radical changes in the plastics recycling industry. We need measures to create a market for recycled plastics so that the market pulls recyclable plastics out of the landfills. The market barriers restricting the use of recycled plastics should be lifted by the upcoming revision of the European waste legislation.”
Emans adds, “The recent public consultations made by the European Commission demonstrate that European citizens are asking to create sustainable plastics, which are recycled at their end-of-life. The Commission (European Commission), Parliament and member states will now have to translate these expectations.”
Members of the EuPR handle around 80% of Europe’s plastics recycling capacity and process more than 3 million tonnes of plastics per year.
PAPER
Russia’s recycled containerboard production surges
Recycled containerboard production in Russia is outpacing virgin production despite a limited supply of recovered paper in that nation, according to a new report from the Brussels office of RISI.
Recycled containerboard production in Russia has grown by an average of 11.3% per year during each of the past three years while production of virgin containerboard has grown just 3.7% annually.
“Double-digit production growth has resulted in Russian domestic Testliner 2 prices reaching 1.7 times their variable costs in the 2010-2012 period,” says Orifjon Abidov, senior economist for packaging papers at RISI. “This is much higher than the 1.25 ratio experienced by the Western European recycled containerboard industry.”
Details of the Russian containerboard market as observed by RISI are available in its new report “The Outlook for Russian Paper Packaging Markets,” available through RISI’s website at www.risi.com/russianpackaging.
According to RISI, the report provides “an independent and thorough analysis of the sub-segments of the Russian packaging paper markets. It includes coverage of containerboard, cartonboard, wrapping and specialty papers from 2002-2012 with forecasts through 2018.”
Among the topics examined in “The Outlook for Russian Paper Packaging Markets” are:
- an overview of paper packaging demand by region in Russia;
- analysis of real and gross market share of producers in Russian containerboard, cartonboard and sack and wrapping paper grades;
- technical comparison of containerboard machines with corrugator specifications;
- analysis of brown testliner and brown kraftliner manufacturing costs;
- containerboard price development in Russian regions; and
- forecasts of demand, supply, exports and imports, for the Russian containerboard, cartonboard and wrapping papers industries.
More than 40 paper and board production companies are covered in the report, including nearly three dozen firms based in Russia and global firms active in Russia such as Stora Enso, Smurfit Kappa, Mondi Packaging and International Paper.
RISI is an information provider for the global forest products industry that works with clients in the pulp and paper, wood products, timber, biomass, tissue, nonwovens, printing and publishing industries. The firm’s global headquarters is the United States in Bedford, Mass.
METALS
European metals recycling group evaluates EC actions
The European Ferrous Recovery & Recycling Federation (EFR) has published the findings of a study on conflicting policies including, the European Commission’s Steel Action Plan. The release of the study follows an announcement by the EU Commission on a set of recommendations, released earlier this year, to revive the European steel industry. The French consulting firm Laplace Conseil conducted the survey.
In a press release, EFR notes that while it supports the EC’s intention to foster a sustainable EU steel industry, it expressed concern that measures promoted could jeopardize the scrap collection, sorting and processing industry. “Export restrictions and high regulation costs on the EU scrap recycling industry will have a detrimental impact on EU’s employment, trade relations and environment,” says EFR President Tom Bird. “Collectors and processors, along with the EAF steel industry, enjoy a symbiotic relationship that needs to be nurtured, not put at risk by unintended consequences of new regulation.”
Issues that created significant concerns for the EFR include proposals to restrict the exports or impose additional monitoring burdens on scrap metal trade. Marcel Genet, founder and managing director of Laplace Conseil and author of the report, notes, “The EU has a huge and growing scrap reservoir. There is no risk of a scrap shortage that would justify export restrictions.”
Bird adds, “We cannot support any policy that impedes the export of steel scrap. We need to protect the free flow of scrap and are concerned that any restrictions would have a detrimental impact on us.”
EFR says the study shows that export restrictions will not increase domestic EAF (electric arc furnace) steel industry output, since that is driven by domestic demand. Basic oxygen furnace (BOF) and EAF producers are already facing different regulatory costs, with the scrap-consuming EAF producers bearing a higher regulatory cost per tonne of finished products. The EU scrap recycling industry fears that negative effects of existing regulations will remain unaddressed as policy makers turn to new scrap export restrictions, monitoring and regulations.