Four German operating units of France-based Recylex S.A. have “applied for protective shield procedures in accordance [with] German Insolvency law,” says the firm.

The four subsidiaries—Weser-Metall GmbH, Harz-Metall GmbH, Norzinco GmbH and PPM Pure Metals GmbH—recycle lead-acid batteries and other materials containing lead or zinc. According to Recylex, “Weser-Metall GmbH produces approximately 120,000 tons of lead annually, making it the third-largest lead smelter in Europe and the second-largest lead recycler.”

Sebastian Rudow, chairman and CEP of Recylex S.A., says the protective filings are directly related to COVID-19 and resulting shutdowns. “The rapid developments caused by [the] pandemic have effects we can no longer influence,” he comments. “The slump of the zinc price and the deteriorating economic outlook are now taking away the going concern perspective of Harz-Metall GmbH.”

Additional comments by Rudlow point to a future separation of the German operations from Recylex operations in France. “With the protective shield procedures, the operationally active entities of the German subgroup will be entering a new path to face the challenges of [the] pandemic,” he comments. “Without the challenges of the German subgroup, we can and must focus on our core in France.”

Continues Rudlow, “I am expecting that the special restructuring benefits provided by German law in these procedures will enable the entities to continue their business operations and to pursue their restructuring according to a path individually chosen by them. Weser-Metall GmbH’s smelter needs to be supplied continuously, and the used lead-acid batteries recycling plants of Recylex S.A. are currently resuming their operations. Our polypropylene production in France stands with great know-how and high industrial standards.”

Recylex S.A. also states, “The objective of the filing for protective shield procedures is to continue each business operation and to implement individual restructuring processes and, therefore, to enable the companies to survive once the pandemic has been overcome.”

The Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) has made changes to its nickel futures contract policy, one of which includes allowing the delivery of nickel briquettes against SHFE nickel futures contracts.

According to a May 18 online report from London-based information services provider Roskill, the SHFE changes were announced May 8 but will not take effect until mid-October. In addition to permitting briquettes, the SHFE also has:

• removed a requirement that refined nickel should only be delivered in the form of plate-shape nickel cathode; and
• expanded the range of deliverable refined nickel from “registered brands only” to “registered and designated brands.”

China’s nickel and stainless steel producers have long shown a preference for nickel pig iron produced in other parts of Asia, with little nickel-bearing scrap playing a smaller role compared to scrap in the aluminum and copper sectors. The nation’s battery producers have largely relied on electro-winning nickel cathode.

The introduction of nickel ore export bans followed by the COVID-19-related idling of mining activities in nations such as Indonesia and the Philippines, however, could be altering the scrap landscape at stainless mills, provided regulations allow it.

An analysis by Lu Ying of Roskill points to reasons for a shift in the battery market also. Since SHFE’s nickel futures contract was launched in March 2015, only electrolytic (or electro-winning) nickel cathode has been deliverable against that contract, she writes.

That has restricted trading to products made by Norilsk Nickel and two or three Chinese producers. “Nickel cathode has been the main type of Class I nickel consumed and traded in China, whilst other metal forms like briquettes, powder and pellets have been consumed mainly overseas and traded through the LME,” adds Lu.

She says the liquidity of briquettes has been rising in the Chinese market, “benefitting from the increased use of such material in both the battery and stainless steel sectors. Formed as a brick shape and containing over 99.8 percent nickel, the nickel briquette [is] seen as a suitable feedstock for production of nickel sulphate used in electric vehicle batteries and has been used extensively by domestic refineries.”

Concludes Lu, “With briquettes becoming another deliverable refined nickel product on the SHFE, Roskill expects to see additional consumption of such material in both battery and stainless steel applications. However, consumption is still likely to be limited to certain duty-free brands. More importantly, this change can offer a new opportunity for downstream consumers to hedge their spot positions in the futures market, which has been a pain point for battery consumers for a long time, especially in the Chinese market.”

Roskill is offering a “Nickel: Outlook to 2029” report, information about which can be viewed on this web page.

Schönberg, Germany-based Sesotec GmbH says its equipment is helping MultiPet GmbH, a subsidiary of France-based Veolia that operates in Germany, in its efforts to process discarded polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and trays into recycled-content PET flakes “that are pure enough to be used by plastic processors to create new products and containers.”

“With the rise in consumption of raw materials, plastic processors are facing higher political and social demands to use a greater proportion of recycled materials,” states Sesotec. The firm says companies such as MultiPet and its sister company Multiport, which specializes in making high-density polyethylene (HDPE) compounds from packaging scrap, are growing in importance as suppliers of secondary raw materials for the plastics processing industry.

MultiPet receives bales of presorted PET scrap. After the bales are broken up, the plastic is first checked for impurities and then ground into flakes and washed.

The Sesotec Flake Purifier+ multi-sensor sorting systems from Sesotec come into play at MultiPet after the ground material has undergone a two-stage density separation process involving two rounds of hot washing. At this stage, the sorting systems separate “discolored materials, foreign plastics” and metals from the flakes.

The units are designed especially for use in plastic flake processing and are “characterized above all by ease of operation and heightened throughput capacities,” according to Sesotec.

The MultiPet Flake Purifier+ systems are equipped with multiple sensors for color and material recognition. The design enables MultiPet to produce PET flakes in batches of different colors and qualities for use as raw materials in the plastics processing industry.

“Sesotec’s processing technology enables us to keep the loss of good material to a minimum,” says Herbert Snell, managing director of MultiPet GmbH. “This makes our sorting processes even more efficient.“

For the installation, Sesotec says its delivery “was complemented by a turnkey material handling setup that included steelwork platforms and material conveyance systems, simplifying integration into the overall system.”

Sesotec describes itself as a maker of machines and systems for contaminant detection and material sorting, with a focus on the plastics, recycling, food, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Sesotec has subsidiaries in Canada, China, India, Italy, Singapore, Thailand and the United States, combined employing some 540 people.

Jiangxi Province in China has reportedly introduced measures designed to aid copper producers that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Reuters, the measures include tax breaks and preferential loan terms. The province is home to China’s largest copper company, Jiangxi Copper Co., and borders Hubei Province, which was the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak in China. Previously, Yunnan Province announced a drive to stockpile nonferrous metals for a year.

Reuters cites the Jiangxi provincial government’s WeChat account as the source of the information, noting 16 additional measures were mentioned, including taxing only 90 percent of the earnings of firms that sell copper and copper products made from scrap metal, and allowing them to reclaim 30 percent of value-added tax (VAT) paid.

The province also directed banks to extend the deadline for principal and interest repayments on loans to small and mid-sized copper companies to June 30. They were also instructed not to levy penalty interest, Reuters reports.

“The province would also expand copper consumption by broadening sales channels and encourage businesses to give priority to key enterprises amid a tight market for raw materials such as scrap and copper concentrate,” Reuters reports.

The Jiangxi government also said it would “revitalize” scrap import quotas, according to the article, and transfer quotas held by traders to copper processors.