Providing a Demolition-to-Scrap Link

In a market like the one scrap dealers are experiencing in 2004, new sources of scrap are always welcome. The Investment Recovery Association, Kansas City, Mo., may be able to provide a few.

Barry Stein of Ansam Metals Corp., Baltimore, says his company has been an associate member of the organization for more than a decade, and has found the relationship to be beneficial. “We get a good deal of our scrap from association members,” says Stein, noting that Investment Recovery Association members can include manufacturing firms and utility providers who occasionally must shut down obsolete plants.

Ansam Metals specializes in dismantling large, complicated obsolete equipment for its scrap value, but Stein says other scrap firms can also benefit from linking up with the association.

Ansam has been able to gain the trust of association members through its years of providing knowledge and sub-contractor assistance to member companies with a dismantling and sell-off project on their hands. “The companies don’t necessarily have the best scrap knowledge, and they have many other concerns—such as environmental compliance and used equipment sales—at the same time they are trying to learn about scrap,” says Stein. “We’ll help them get a handle on the best ways to sell scrap material and how to get the best value for it.”

Although Ansam enjoys being among the few scrap dealer companies involved with the Investment Recovery Association, Stein says there is “absolutely” room for other scrap companies to get involved. “They can benefit from contacting the Investment Recovery Association and its executive members and staying in touch to find out about any local scrap generating sources opportunities stemming from association member company activities,” he notes.

In fact, Stein says his company would be pleased to work in cooperation with regional scrap companies that may also be plugged in to investment recovery projects in their operating areas. “We would rather work with a scrap dealer in other regions and have a processing partner,” he notes, “It’s not a secret.”

Stein says the relationship can be a positive one from all sides. “The association has been a very good place for us to meet people and find sources of scrap from all over the country. For a local scrap company, it might be a way to get to know more people in their area who might have an organized method of selling material, and they can get involved in that process. And for the manufacturers and utility companies, scrap dealers can help them simplify the selling of scrap.”

More information on the Investment Recovery Association can be found on the Web at www.invrecovery.org.