Mexican recyclers add metal baling capacity

Mexico has had a growing manufacturing sector for several decades, providing one reason why its ferrous and nonferrous scrap generation volumes nurture a market for successful and growing recycling companies.

In particular, Monterrey, considered Mexico’s third-largest metropolitan area, has benefitted from the presence of “maquiladoras,” or factories and assembly plants established there by multinational companies to be near the border with the United States.

“Monterrey has successfully attracted a diversified commercial base, including international companies from the aerospace, automobile, electronics, medical device and industrial [sectors],” says the MaquilaReference.com website.

Two scrap companies based in or near Monterrey that have enjoyed access to the sizable industrial base each have invested in baling capacity to help them prepare and ship the steady stream of scrap metal in the northern Mexico region.

Dimeca Metals in Monterrey operates an 800-ton shear/baler from Lefort America, the Florida-based business unit of Belgium-based Lefort S.A. The installation of the Lefort SB800 marked the third and largest Lefort shear/baler operated by Dimeca in Mexico.

The SB800 shear baler features a loading hopper, 800 tons of shearing force, a 23-foot charge box and a 230-kilowatt electric motor powering Bosch Rexroth pumps and a Lefort-engineered hydraulic system.

According to a news release from Lefort America, the model joins a Lefort SB660 track mounted shear/baler used at Dimeca’s facility in Guadalajara, and a Lefort SB770 used at Dimeca’s yard in the steelmaking city of Saltillo.

Of the new SB800, Dimeca CEO Ricardo de la Pena says, “We are very happy with this machine.” He indicates the production rate has exceeded his expectations and that Dimeca is able to cut and bale types of scrap that it had previously not been able to process before the machine’s installation.

Nonferrous scrap recycling has played a larger role in the growth of RIISA, which is based near Monterrey. Family business RIISA operates four locations in Mexico and has been loyal to balers made by Spain-based Imabe Iberica LLC.

According to RIISA’s Mauricio Llaguno Garza, who provided information to Recycling Today for an Imabe of America custom-content project, RIISA has 12 balers in its processing fleet. The firm’s website lists Imabe and United States-based Harris as its baler suppliers.

RIISA has its origins in secondary aluminum smelting, but it has grown to handle (and bale) a wide variety of scrap metals. In addition to aluminum scrap grades, RIISA now buys and processes red metal, ferrous, stainless steel, zinc and plastic scrap. “We are always in the search for new materials and markets,” states the firm on its website.

Llaguno Garza says the machines RIISA has acquired from Florida-based Imabe of America are “dependable, worry-free and very easy to operate.”

The Mexican economy is facing the same challenges as others around the world in seeking to regain momentum lost from COVID-19-related disruptions.

The nation has a stable regional trading regimen in place in the form of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), and its current government has initiated considerable infrastructure spending. Ideally, the economic circumstances will keep Mexico’s metal baling and shearing equipment—and the recycling companies that operate them—humming throughout 2021.