New Hampshire Port Set to Start Moving Scrap

Last month the Port of New Hampshire re-entered the scrap-metal storage business.

Late last month steel started arriving at the port. Currently three piles stand at the pier: The largest contains shredded steel, and two smaller ones consist of steel parts of various sizes that will be shipped as they are.

Per agreement, no processing of the product will be done at the port.

The existing piles are the result of a one-year contract with Rensselaer Iron & Steel of New York and Grimmel Industries of Maine for the storage of scrap steel at the port until it can be loaded onto large cargo ships for shipment overseas.

"The first ship is being scheduled," said Craig Wheeler, port authority director. "It may be arriving by the end of this month. Right now there are 10 to 15 trucks arriving here with product each day."

While the port is much smaller than many of the larger ports that dot the East Coast, it is considered a deep water port, and can be used to "top off" some shipments, Wheeler notes.

Once the operation is in full swing, an average of 18 to 20 trucks a day will be entering the port from around the state, Maine and northern Massachusetts.

The new business comes a little more than five years after John T. Clark and Son was replaced in 1997 by Bulkloader Inc. as operator of the port, ending a 28-year run by the scrap metal company.

Rensselaer and Grimmel have guaranteed the scrap metal will not be processed at the site, and that the piles will be cycled out of the port every 90 days.

For the first few months, in order to get the operation going, the companies will be allowed 120 days to move the steel.

The new clients plan to bring in about $694,000 in business on a yearly basis. The contract expires after one year unless renegotiated by the parties involved. Wheeler says that that one-year term is basically being viewed as a probationary period.

In a January meeting with the Pease Development Authority, the recyclers noted that they had been looking for an additional port location because the water depth in the area of the Hudson River where it now operates is too shallow to completely fill the ships. Initial plans call for the ships to be partly filled in New York and then sent to Portsmouth to complete the process in the deeper waters of the Piscataqua River.

"We can load 15,000 to 20,000 tons, but we need 30,000 to 35,000 tons to fill a ship," said John Black, a spokesman for Rensselear. "Scrap metal will be trucked into Portsmouth and stockpiled at the port until it can be loaded on ships."

An average of 90,000 tons of scrap metal will move through the port each year, stored on a 3-acre site. The port has a total of 11 acres that is has at its disposal.

Scrap steel would be processed at three related companies. All that will take place in Portsmouth is storage before the steel is loaded onto ships for transport overseas.

Rensselaer will pay the port $12,000 annually in scale-house fees, $50,000 per acre in storage fees, and all applicable terminal charges, according to the  Portsmouth Herald