North Star subsidiary of Australian steelmaker completes expansion, contributes to firm’s revenue growth.
A mid-May ceremony at North Star BlueScope Steel in Delta, Ohio, has marked the completion of a $700 million capacity expansion project at the facility. According to Australia-based BlueScope Steel Ltd., the expansion will increase annual hot-rolled steel coil production by 850,000 metric tons.
“This was a difficult build because of the pandemic, but we were still able to complete the project,” says Patrick Finan, BlueScope’s chief executive of hot rolled products in North America. He continues, “Next month, we’ll be making the first slab off the new caster, which is part of the expansion.”
North Star President Doug Lange says, “We continued to run throughout the build. It took a tremendous amount of coordination to build a steel mill in the middle of another steel mill.” Lange credits several entities for assisting the project, including “the State of Ohio, Fulton County, the Fulton County Economic Development Corp., Jobs Ohio, the local community and North Star’s team members.”
At the ceremony, Mark Vassella, BlueScope CEO and managing director, presented a large, framed photo of the scrap-fed electric arc furnace (EAF) minimill. He also announced the North Star team earned the CEO’s Health and Safety Excellence Award for 2021.
BlueScope is pointing to the Ohio mill expansion in just-released earnings guidance. The Australian firm announced it now expects underlying earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to be in the range of $970 million to $1.05 billion for the second half of its fiscal year 2022. (That period runs from Jan. 1 to June 30 of this year.)
That range is above the prior guidance range of $850 million to $960 million, though “subject to spread, foreign exchange and market conditions,” the company adds.
In a note to investors about the guidance, BlueScope writes in part, “The stronger outlook is driven by improved earnings expectations for North Star and the North America coated business due to better-than-expected realized steel prices and spreads in the United States. Expectations for BlueScope’s other businesses remain broadly consistent with outlook comments provided in February.”
As part of its growing presence in the U.S., BlueScope in December of last year completed the acquisition of the ferrous scrap processing assets of Indiana-based MetalX.
Medalco Metals will operate as a division of Metal Exchange Corp.
St. Louis-based Metal Exchange Corp., a company involved in nonferrous metals trading, manufacturing, scrap processing, distribution and transportation, has acquired New Jersey-based Medalco Metals Inc., a U.S.-based distributor of light-gauge aluminum rolled products.
Since it was established in 2003, Medalco has positioned itself as a strategic partner serving a diverse customer base in the growing automotive, building and flex and HVAC markets. Metal Exchange says in news release about the purchase. Medalco will operate as a division of Metal Exchange.
Medalco co-owners Dwight Klepacki and Larry Dansky began considering potential buyers for their organization in early 2022 and found strong cultural alignment with Metal Exchange—a factor both parties considered key to the success of the acquisition. Klepacki and Dansky cite the shared core values; the “dual bottom line” approach that balances financial success with the safety, well-being and fulfillment of its employees; and Metal Exchange’s long-standing reputation in the industry as key drivers of the deal.
“The company culture and business philosophies at Metal Exchange were a clear fit for us, right from the start,” Klepacki says.
Metal Exchange says customers and suppliers will enjoy expanded access to inventory as a part of the Metal Exchange family, noting that the Medalco name, values and emphasis on strong customer relationships will remain unchanged. “We look forward to not only maintaining but enhancing relationships with our customers and suppliers,” Dansky says.
“Medalco’s specialty products and unwavering commitment to customer service align with Metal Exchange’s business model and growth strategy,” says Vijay Natarajan, executive vice president of Metal Exchange’s Trading Division. “This bolt-on acquisition expands Metal Exchange’s footprint while providing further value for our customers, suppliers and business partners.”
Rick Merluzzi, Metal Exchange CEO, adds, “Given our strong people-oriented culture, the scale and scope of our business and long-term commitment to our industry, we are a great landing spot for companies like Medalco to transition their company. We are very excited to add Medalco to the Metal Exchange family.”
Metal Exchange operates eight manufacturing facilities in North America and a joint venture in Italy. The company has marketing and sales offices in St. Louis as well as international officers in Zurich, Shanghai and Singapore. Its operating companies include Metal Exchange Trading, Pennex Extruded Products and Electro Cycle Inc.
United Kingdom-based Greenback Technologies has received funding it says will go toward a recycling plant in Mexico.
Greenback Technologies Ltd., based in the United Kingdom, says it has secured additional funding that can help enable it to build a plastic scrap recycling facility in Mexico that will use pyrolysis technology.
Greenback says it has “successfully completed part of a pre-Series B funding round” for an undisclosed amount it says was supported by both new and existing investors. “The extra funding has also enabled the company to convert a loan made under the U.K. government’s Future Fund scheme into equity,” the firm adds.
The company also has announced the appointment of Craig Arnold as a new nonexecutive board director. He joins the board “bringing with him extensive experience gained in executive leadership roles with global responsibilities and spanning a variety of industries,” Greenback says.
Arnold currently is chief commercial officer at Ferroglobe, a London-based silicon metal, silicon alloys and manganese alloys producer. Prior to that, he was Dow president for Sub-Sahara Africa and global ambassador for Africa.
Philippe von Stauffenberg, founder and CEO of Greenback, says, “This is a genuinely exciting and important moment for Greenback. The investment secured during our latest funding round and the addition of Craig to our board are both pivotal in enabling us to progress our project with Nestlé Mexico to the next stage.”
He continues, “We are one step closer to delivering a solution for globally recognized brands that can make the previously unrecyclable, recyclable, making a very clear statement about the strength of their commitment to sustainability and the circular economy.”
Greenback says it has raised additional funds through the sale of ecoveritas, a consulting firm offering data-driven recycling-related “compliance and provenance” services.
The 2022 developments at Greenback will enable the company to proceed with the project in Mexico that involves cooperation with Nestlé. That plant will use “innovative microwave-induced pyrolysis technology developed” by U.K.-based Enval “to turn hitherto hard to recycle plastic into certified feedstock that can be used to create new food grade plastic packaging with the required evidence that it has been made from post-consumer waste,” Greenback says.
The company says the equipment increases profitability by improving downstream separation and the grade of nonferrous metals.
Recycling equipment manufacturer Eriez, Erie, Pennsylvania, has launched the Dynamic Pulley Separator. The equipment is designed to free steel and weakly magnetic fines from recycled materials.
The company says the equipment increases profitability by improving downstream separation and the grade of nonferrous metals. The Dynamic Pulley Separator is suited for recovering ferrous fines from ASR and waste-to-energy bottom ash.
The equipment is positioned upstream from an eddy current separator, and uses a rare earth permanent magnet pulley rotating at an offset speed from the belt, creating an agitating magnetic field. This improves ferrous recovery or removal and allows nonferrous material to continue to downstream equipment.
For ASR applications, the Dynamic Pulley Separator can be used with weaker magnetic drums to recover ferrous nuggets from the ASR stream. Discarded fines material that pass through the initial screening process goes to the Dynamic Pulley Separator for removal of ferrous. The nonferrous fraction can then be further processed on an eddy current separator.
“The agitating action generated by the Dynamic Pulley Separator allows for fine ferrous to be recovered while freeing up valuable nonferrous metals to be recovered downstream,” says Chris Ramsdell, Eriez Recycling product manager. “The Eriez DPS helps to debulk and reduce material burden upstream of eddy current separators and other downstream nonferrous separation equipment providing for improved Zorba grade and recovery.”
The new Dynamic Pulley Separator is also effective for ferrous removal from plastics, rubber and similar materials. These separators provide a high-powered agitating magnetic field to pull metal contaminants out of the product flow, improving purity and protecting downstream equipment from damage.
The Dynamic Pulley Separator is available in 40-inch and 60-inch widths and can be accommodated for base or suspended mounting ahead of an eddy current separator. For more information on Eriez recycling equipment, click here for more.
Copper and aluminum pricing have softened.
While domestic demand for copper and aluminum scrap remains, pricing has softened since March, with Rick Dobkin of Shapiro Metals, St. Louis, writing in the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling’s “World Mirror: Non-Ferrous Metals,” released in mid-May, that the decline has been significant.
“The U.S. regional premium has dipped slightly since March but is still near historically high levels, reflecting how freight and other supply chain costs remain elevated,” he continues. “Rolling mill and profile scrap spreads to prime have remained stable through the downturn in terminal markets. The demand side is still strong, with spot sales readily available for most items.”
Dobkin adds that metal input, transportation and personnel costs are supporting aluminum ingot prices despite suppressed automotive production related to the ongoing semiconductor shortage. “As secondary ingot prices climb, the gap to prime is narrowing, allowing secondary smelters to start dipping into lower grade mill scrap items. All secondary scrap prices have headed higher since March, although some items are less in fashion than others. Most recently, domestic scrap prices have been drifting lower as export markets are very quiet,” he adds.
Colin Denihan of Metal Source LLC, a Wabash, Indiana-based operator of scrap yards and producer of 356 and 380 aluminum sow and ingot and de-ox products, says much of the downward pressure on pricing is related to lockdowns in China designed to stop the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19.
He adds that Malaysia and India are not buying aluminum sow and ingot.
Dobkin writes, “Export business remains complicated, with wide swings in ocean freight costs and ongoing port issues. The dramatic fall in LME (London Metal Exchange) prices has put many buyers on the sidelines as Asian ingot prices are slipping.”
South of the U.S. border, Alejandro Jaramillo of Glorem SC in Mexico, also writing in the “World Mirror,” says, “The pronounced correction in LME aluminum prices has brought more scrap to the market at the same time as buyers are adopting a cautious stance amid a dropping market, demand uncertainty and elevated financing costs owing to higher interest rates. The resulting imbalance has led to bearish aluminum scrap markets for almost all grades.”
He adds that scrap used to produce secondary alloys for automotive applications “have retained their bearish tone, while those used by the extrusion industry and rolling mills have lost significant steam compared to previous months.”
Dobkin says copper spreads in the U.S. market have remained stable despite the decrease in the terminal market. “Demand is still strong domestically for copper. Brass ingot makers are busy with all mills aggressively chasing scrap units such that pricing remains strong.”
A wire processor based in the Midwest says scrap generation has been somewhat softer with the decline in price, even though it remains in the $4.25 per pound range.
“Domestic demand is still pretty high,” he says. “Copper foundries want material.”
He says delivery windows are within 30 days, though spot market interest is not as strong, which he attributes to consumers having locked in contracts at the start of the year.
Trucking within the U.S. can rival overseas shipping in terms of complications, Denihan and the wire processor indicate.
Denihan says Metal Source has experienced difficulty with trucking. “Demand is far outweighing capacity,” he says, adding that missed appointments are more common than they traditionally have been.
The wire processor says trucking is a “nightmare,” indicating that pricing has doubled and securing a truck is uncertain. He says his company is spending more time dealing with trucking than ever before, adding that 10 percent to 15 percent of the time, the trucks fail to show up as scheduled. Despite that, he says the situation is better than it was a year ago.
“It doesn’t make me any money trying to figure out a truck,” the wire processor adds.