Scrap Industry News

Several moderators and speakers have been confirmed for the ISRI (Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc.) Mega Roundtable event, to be held Sept. 11 and 12 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare, Rosemont, Ill., near Chicago.

Speakers at Tuesday’s copper roundtable, which will explore the markets for number two copper, will include Jonathan Fisher of Commercial Metals Co, Dallas; Henry Schweich of Cerro Copper Products Co., St. Louis; Ronald Stevens of Kennecott Copper, Salt Lake City, Utah; and Ted Arnold of Prudential Bache, N.Y. The moderator will be Alora Meisel of Versatile Metals Inc., North Brunswick, N.J.

A new E-commerce Roundtable to be held on Tuesday will include presentations from Denny Luma of Wabash Alloys, Wabash, Ind.; Robert Schenosky, Merrill Lynch, N.Y.; Mike Stovall of Citation Corp., Birmingham, Ala.; and Becky Graninger, Wise Metals Group, Baltimore.

Wednesday morning sessions will include the iron and steel roundtable, which will be moderated by David Borsuk of Sadoff Iron & Metal, Fond du Lac, Wisc. Among the speakers will be Kumar Radhakrishnan of Australia’s Sims International.

The lead and zinc roundtable, to be held at the same time as the iron and steel roundtable, will be moderated by Steve Brown of U.S. Zinc Corp., Houston, and will include presentations by Huw Roberts of CHR Metals, Surrey, England, and other speakers.

The Mega Roundtables will close on Wednesday afternoon with the aluminum roundtable, co-moderated by David Fink of Allied Metals, Chicago and Pete Stirrup of OmniSource, Fort Wayne, Ind. Scheduled speakers include Eivand Hagen of Hydro Aluminum in Norway and Stuart Cohen of Behr Metals Inc., Rockford, Ill.

Deal Doubles G-P's Buying Power

The acquisition of Fort James Corp., Deerfield, Ill., by Georgia-Pacific Corp., Atlanta, would nearly double Georgia-Pacific’s secondary fiber buying requirements and make the company North America’s single largest consumer of scrap paper.

“By my calculations, we would become the largest consumer in North America,” says Georgia-Pacific director of recycling operations Victor Gaylor. Globally, Georgia-Pacific (G-P) consumes 2.5 million tons of scrap paper (all in North America), while Fort James consumes 2.3 million tons in North America and Europe.

Gaylor estimates the North American tonnage to be consumed by the combined companies would surpass the 3.5 million to 3.7 million tons that Smurfit Stone Container Corp., Chicago, now consumes annually after its purchase of St. Laurent Paperboard.

From a paper grade standpoint, the deal will greatly expand G-Ps exposure to high grades and de-inking grades.

“The Fort James acquisition makes us perhaps the largest player in de-inking grades, which will be an addition to our own background in the brown grades.”

G-P has gained some experience in the high grade de-inking market, Gaylor notes, with the company’s earlier acquisition of Wisconsin Tissue. “That has helped us get informed on how to source the high grades and pulp substitutes,” he remarks.

Gaylor says the deal is a good fit for G-P overall as well as the company’s secondary fiber procurement operations.

“Fort Howard (the Green Bay, Wisc., tissue maker that formed half of Fort James) has always been a great manufacturing company and very professional in the cleaning and use of recovered fiber and how to make an end product out of it,” says Gaylor.

“James River (the former Richmond, Va.-based half of Fort James) has great marketing and branding abilities. By acquiring the combined company, we have access to both of those qualities.”

From a fiber procurement standpoint, Gaylor says both companies have nearly identical brokerage and purchasing structures—though they are largely configured to handle different grades.

“There is very little difference in the two systems,” he says. “They have a brokerage group and a purchasing group that report to the same area of the company. It should be a very easy transition.”

Gaylor is upbeat about the merger’s potential. “This is a good deal. It fits very nicely in our portfolio, and offers great synergies and cost savings in fiber procurement, logistics and trading information.”

Gordon Earns National Award

Gordon Industries Inc., Statesville, N.C., profiled in the April 2000 edition of Recycling Today, has been awarded the 1999 National Family Business of the Year Award in a contest sponsored by MassMutual, .

Winners in three size categories were named, with Gordon Industries—which includes L. Gordon Iron & Metal Co. and Gordon’s Furniture as its operating divisions—winning in the medium business size category (50 to 250 employees).

Nine Gordons are working side-by-side in the family business, with some fifth generation family members beginning their careers at the 83-year-old company. “We’ve never had a Gordon come here and leave,” L. Gordon Iron & Metal Co. vice president Craig Gordon says of the family’s loyalty to the business.

Gordon Industries employs 89 people in the two different divisions, both of which have grown considerably in the past two decades.

The company’s officers cite cooperation and the assumption of joint responsibility as keys to the company’s ongoing success. Family members meet daily to discuss work issues at roundtable discussions, and all have learned to leave disagreements and business issues at the office at the end of the day.