SMM Sells Facilities in Alabama, Mississippi

Steel City Recycling LLC (SCR), a newly created company formed by a number of scrap metal industry veterans, has acquired Sims Metal Management’s (SMM) auto shredder in Birmingham, Ala., and an SMM scrap metal facility in West Point, Miss.

SCR, headquartered at the Birmingham location, has an auto shredder, mobile and stationary shear and HRB nonferrous baler on site. Additionally, the facility has an idled wire granulator that SCR may restart.

While the West Point location will be used as a feeder yard for the Birmingham plant, it also has a shear in operation, which will allow that yard to conduct its own processing when needed, says John Marynowski, one of the principals of SCR.

SCR was formed by members of the Rifkin family, who own MetalX, Waterloo, Ind.; the Dreher family, who own Jefferson Iron and Metal Brokerage, Birmingham, Ala.; and Marynowski, a scrap metal veteran and president of Atlanta-based Intonu.

According to the Greater Fort Wayne (Indiana) Business Weekly, Chuck Miller, president of Steel City, says the company will focus on processing a range of ferrous and nonferrous metals. Miller previously worked for Commercial Metals.

Marynowski says that SCR will operate separately from any of the partners’ scrap yards, and no members of any of the families are employees of the firm.

According to published reports, the three families that are part of SCR already are joint partners in ARC (Alabama Reclamation Center) Alabama, a 250-ton processing facility that has been designed to reclaim metals from auto shredder residue.

MetalX President and CEO Danny Rifkin says that SCR is a “natural extension of the ARC deal in the region.”

Of the recently acquired businesses, Rifkin says their purchase will “establish a platform for the growth of Steel City Recycling into the leading scrap recycling company in that region," according to the Fort Wayne Business Weekly.

“The partners have a long history of successful joint ventures together, and we’re confident that our outstanding leadership will build an excellent organization,” he says.

Combined, the two facilities have 50 to 60 employees, the majority of whom work out of the Birmingham site.

“There is lots of growth possible here,” Marynowski says. “We don’t think the (Birmingham) facility is up to the capacity possible.”

Going forward, Rifkin says that there are a number of niche opportunities available. “Companies that succeed understand the fundamentals of the business and are able to manage their activities. There are niche opportunities in the business.”

As for the South being a particularly good growth area, Rifkin notes that the best way to look at growth prospects is not so much of a general area, but rather a “micro geographic region.”

In the meantime, Rifkin says the goal of the company is to focus on getting the new facilities operating as efficiently as possible. SCR will be taking in material from retail, wholesale and industrial accounts.

“We intend to run the facility as a full-service business,” Rifkin says.