Scrap metal exports begin at Port of Longview

A company formed by a partnership between two scrap metal companies in the Northwest seeks to provide the direct export of ferrous scrap from Washington’s Port of Longview to steel mills in Korea.

The partnership, formed in August 2013 between R.S. Davis Recycling, Clackamas, Oregon, and Rivergate Scrap Metals, based in Portland, Oregon, resulted in the creation of Pacific Northwest Metal Recycling (PNW), Longview. The newly formed company will focus on exporting ferrous scrap from the Port of Longview to consumers in Asia.

PNW Metal Recycling purchased a 37-acre site at Longview’s Mint Farm Industrial Park specifically for exporting the ferrous scrap, the company says.

According to the Longview Daily News, the partnership followed a market analysis report that the port recently completed that found scrap metal exports as one of the most viable export commodities from the Pacific Northwest.

“We were both selling to other companies that exported, and so this was the next step—bring our tonnages together and load a cargo ship,” PNW Finance and Marketing Director Hank Doane says.

“We have intensions of growing our business with a solid working relationship with the longshore, Port of Longview and Pasha Stevedoring,” Doane continues.

Laurie Nelson-Cooley, the Port of Longview’s business development manager, says, “This is a great opportunity to showcase our new equipment. We’re pleased to add this cargo to our portfolio and look forward to using the crane (a Liebherr mobile harbor crane) for additional bulks in the future.”

Earlier this year, the Port of Longview commissioned its second crane by Liebherr, headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, which has expanded the port’s cargo handling capabilities. The cranes each can lift between 104 and 140 metric tons at a 100-foot outreach. Combined, they are capable of handling over-dimensional tandem lifts, officials say.

The port says the combination of two mobile harbor cranes and the adjacent 70 acres of open laydown storage provides excellent opportunity for business. The newest of the cranes has additional attachments, including a 37-cubic-meter clamshell bucket and a hydraulic 20- to 40-foot container bar.

The scrap metal that will be exported will be collected and processed at the five collection yards that the scrap metal companies own and operate in the Northwest. The three grades that the companies are targeting for export shipments are shredded steel, heavy-melt scrap and plate and structural scrap.

Doane says the company has been working for years to export scrap metals, and company officials are excited about the arrangement.

Both the port and PNW Metal Recycling say they are taking pains to ensure the export project is safe for the environment, as well as successful. According to the port, dust was controlled with water and a special machine. Workers kept scrap in a containment area at Berth 7, and all water runoff was captured and piped into holding tanks.