Volatility has characterized many junk markets this year, adding scrap metal. Prices fell at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in April and May, mainly as a result of production shutdown due to blockades. But in June and July, scrap costs began to rise slightly and, from August and September, scrap costs seem more optimistic.
At the 2020 ISRI Commodity Roundtable Forum: Ferrous Spotlight, hosted through the Washington-based Institute of Scrap Metal Recycling Industries (ISRI) from September 14-17 in a virtual format, Blake Hurtik, editor-in-chief of Argus Media, reported that Metal generators have increased in accordance with the degrees of demand for scrap than before the start of the pandemic. Hurtik said ferrous markets have seen a “healthy rise from $ 30 to $ 50 per tonne” this month, adding that obsolete and shredded scrap has been consistent with the well formed and scrap costs consistent with the bushel. increased. about $ 10 this month. He added that “export markets are also hot. “
“You see an uptick in cost demand along with the export market,” he said. “Supply has been the driving force for scrap costs for much of the summer. “
In August, Hurtik reported that for hot-laminated coils (BLC) and bushels in the midwest higher to around $300 consistent with the ton, with a slight decrease in September. “For the September trade, we saw giant trade volumes, eager to buy volumes earlier than we see in order,” he said.
During the scrap panel, all panellists raised considerations about the recovery at the place of the energy market and how this could discard metal. Tom Knippel, vice president of commercial sales at SA Recycling, founded in Orange, California, said he doubted the place of the energy market would. recover soon, the demand for metals for pipe production and the number of platforms.
“It’s still low with no signs of recovery,” he said, noting that West Texas Intermediate costs are falling and oil costs are below recent standards.
Spencer Johnson, an LME industry analyst at New York-based INTL FC Stone, added that the economic outlook for the energy sector is “uncertain. “
“There are a lot of risks, especially in terms of problems and up-value risk,” he said, adding that “for the time being, degrees of uncertainty are leading to a risk-free approach. “
Foreign scrap request
Along with export markets, Turkey is driving cost stability, Hurtik said, adding that strong domestic demand for corrugated rods is helping to maintain costs in Turkey.
In Asia, he said containers in Taiwan are also emerging consistently, India’s pandemic blockades are also softening and some of the demand for metals is re-emerging.
Another trend is China’s emergence as an actor in the cast iron market, he said. Before the fall of 2019, China was not very concerned as a raw cast iron customer. But this year, the country bought much more raw melt as a reaction. to emerging iron ore prices. Hurtik added that he doubted how long China will remain a large customer of raw cast iron.
“China is not the 900-pound gorilla, yet it is the 9,000-pound gorilla,” Knippel said at the roundtable, noting that China is expected to produce one billion tons of metal this year. “They have been the main engine of metal. In the end, five years ago, when China exported a lot and was looking for what it had in metal costs, today we are in the same boat. We get advantages from China, whether we like it or not. The market kept metal costs high enough for China to import metal in July when it normally exported. It is thrown away in the country to reduce costs and pollution. They are the engine of the global metals market. “
Johnson added: “We can place industry barriers, but China will have an impact” on the position of the metals market in the United States.
Capacity on the horizon
Rates of steel mill capacity use are also on the rise. At the beginning of the pandemic, this rate went from a low rate of 80% to almost 50%, but said it had been higher in summer and was now at almost 65%.
Hurtik noted that many metal plants were dismantled when COVID-19 began, however, many of them began to be back online in the last summer. In September, Hurtik reported that the following blast furnaces had been launched:
U. S. Steel Mon Valley No. 1, with 1. 5 million tons consistent with the year;
US Steel Gary Works No. 8, with 1. 2 million tons in line with the year of capacity;
US Steel Gary Works No. 6, with a volume of 1. 36 million tons consistent with the year;
ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor No. 4, with 1. 72 million tons consistent with the year;
ArcelorMittal Burns Harbour C, with a volume of 2. 73 million tons consistent with the year; And
Cliffs/AK Steel’s Dearborn high furnace, with a capacity of 2. 2 million consistent with the year.
In mid-September, US Steel still had two blast idle furnaces: its Gary Works No. four with 1. 5 million tons of year-consistent capacity and its 1. 4 million-ton Granite City A consistent with the year of capacity, and ArcelorMittal has two blast damaged furnaces. 6 with 1. 51 million tons consistent with the year of capacity and its Burns Harbor D with 2. 73 million tons consistent with the year of capacity. However, all those elements are back online at some point.
Hurtik added that at least 4 arc furnaces (FAE) broke down at the beginning of the pandemic, adding the Gerdau electric arc furnace plant in Monroe, Michigan; Gerdau’s EAF plant in Jackson, Michigan; The EAF plant in Tenaris, Koppel, Pennsylvania; and the JSW USA electric arc plant in Mingo Junction, Ohio. None have returned yet, unless the Gerdau plant in Monroe. He noted that the Tenaris and Mingo Junction plants are making investments to their capacity.
“They did not go to the county, but they are going to come back with the concept of long-term growth,” he said.
Despite the pandemic, there is also a lot of optimism about the new electric furnace capacity underway. Hurtik of Argus Media said the following plants have planned electric arc capacity extensions in the near future:
The new Nucor in Sedalia, Missouri, will load 450,000 tons of capacity in line with the year and is expected to enter service in the first quarter of 2020;
The new Frostproof in Nucor, Florida, will load 450,000 tons of year-consistent capacity and is expected to enter service in the fourth quarter of 2020;
THE US Steel in Fairfield, Alabama, will load 1. 6 million tons of capacity consistently with the year and is expected to enter service by 2020;
The new SDI in Texas will load 3 million tons of capacity consistently with the year and is expected to enter service by mid-2021;
Big River Steel’s Osceola, Arkansas will increase capacity to 1. 6 million tons consistently with the year and is expected to enter service in the fourth quarter of 2020;
The Nucor in Gallatin, Kentucky, will load 1. 4 million tons of capacity according to the year and is expected to enter service by mid-2021;
The new Nucor in Brandenburg, Kentucky, will load 1. 2 million tons of capacity according to the year and is expected to enter service in 2022;
The North Star BlueScope in Delta, Ohio, will load 850,000 tons of capacity according to the year and is expected to enter service in 2022;
ArcelorMittal’s Calvert, Alabama will load 1. 6 million tons of capacity consistently with the year and is expected to enter service by 2022; And
Mesa, Arizona, of Commercial Metals Co. , will load 500,000 tons of capacity consistently with the year and is expected to enter service in 2023.
Upstate Shredding – Weitsman Recycling, based in Owego, New York, announced that he has Bob Frank on his team at Ben Weitsman in Rochester, Rochester, New York, as Regional General Manager and Vice President of Business Accounts.
Frank arrives at Ben Weitsman in Rochester after working for thirteen years at Metalico, a competitive steel scrap recycling plant in Rochester. Frank joined the recycling industry at the age of 14, as a candidate for Samuel Frank Metal Co.
According to a press release from Upstate Shredding – Weitsman Recycling, it provides the company with an assessment of business achievement. The company also claims that Weitsman and Frank, although they have competed for many years, have a good reputation and look forward to combining their efforts. when Frank joins upstate Shredding’s team.
“I’m very happy to announce my new company with Ben Weitsman of Rochester,” Frank says. “[Owner Adam Weitsman] and I now have a combined vision to capitalize on the strengths and paintings of others in combination to take advantage of my preference for incredible visitor service and my ability to build long-term relationships with Adam’s commitment to operational excellence. That our partnership will create an unprecedented opportunity for junk consumers in the region.
Hyundai Construction Equipment Americas (HCEA), Norcross, Georgia, announced the expansion of its network of authorized brokers in North America with the addition of United Truck Sales, in Clinton Township, Michigan.
United Truck Sales is a racer of tractors, trailers and heavy trucks, and will do so in particular in Hyundai’s compact shovel devices in the north-central territory of HCEA.
“I’m very happy to climb United Truck Sales as a Hyundai compact shovel racer for the Detroit Tri-County area,” said Ed Harseim, district manager at HCEA – North Central. “We have a perfect diversity of compact blade products that continue to grow and improve with the burden of new products and features, adding our popular 3-year, 3,000-hour warranty. United Truck Sales has a unique set of product support capabilities with its ability to contain everything from semitrailers to structure equipment. They are also passionate about their business and are offering their consumers the most productive help imaginable. They are a perfect burden for Hyundai’s network of riders».
With the addition of this new dealership, Hyundai’s North American network now includes more than 75 dealerships operating in just over 165 locations, offering sales and portions for the full diversity of hydraulic shovels, tire loaders, compaction rollers and other Hyundai-structured equipment.
According to Hyundai, the company’s sales, service, and portion groups provide product and service education to ensure that intermediary partners can provide high-level assistance to meet the developing business desires of Hyundai Construction Equipment customers.
The third day of WasteExpo Together Online began with an introductory discussion between Bloomberg and opinion columnist Adam Minter and Waste360’s director of content and marketing, Liz Bothwell, who acted as moderator.
Minter wrote the 2013 bestseller “Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion Dollar Trash Trade”. He continued this with his most recent book, “Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale” in 2019.
Minter’s presentation, “Things: The Hidden Frontier of Waste and Recycling,” highlights the adventure of fabrics in the flow of waste.
Minter tells how, in the early 2000s, while working as a journalist specializing in the recycling industry, he came up with the concept of writing an e-book about how everyday items become valuable through recycling. The backyard junk was the Christmas lights. After running to where these curtains come from and who recycles them, Minter found himself in China in a position specializing in the recovery of those curtains.
As a component of its presentation, Minter showed a video of a Chinese facility with a formula committed to Christmas gelatin recycling. As a component of this operation, staff load sideboard beams imported from the United States into a water crusher to cool the formula. The resulting addition of plastic, glass and copper passes through a water table where copper is separated from the rest of the softer curtains and can be harvested with a shovel at its value, this copper is then sold to soft Christmas manufacturers. says, it is also edited and sent to a local manufacturer of slipper soles that uses them in its operations. Wastewater from crushers can be reused on site.
Minter submits that this procedure illustrates a concrete example of the circular economy in operation. The problem, he points out, is that thanks to a confluence of points in China that led to the ban on domestic imports of swords, the markets that were in the past. for American recyclables (even with specialized parts such as Christmas lights) have dried up.
Its conclusion is that the way we manage waste wants to change.
“I think everyone has learned in the last two years that recycling is important, essential for environmental management and our waste control regimes, but it’s not enough in itself to deal with [our waste],” Minter says.
The solution, according to Minter, lies in how we reuse materials. Minter uses the example of Good Point Recycling, an electric power recycler in Middlebury, Vermont, which sends computers, monitors and other electronic devices to Ghana.
There, these recycled electronic products are repaired if they are mandatory or sold in the country.
“Like other people around the world, other people in Ghana need the data highway,” Minter says. “[These are things] that were not imported for burning, were imported for reuse and because they can be used less expensive and because they have been massively tested to last a long time. If it has been installed in an American’s living room for five years, it’s probably a very smart computer. “
Minter also notes that there are corporations in Ghana where computers are stored that are no longer functional, and that when entered with a computer with a damaged monitor, for example, those old computers can be separated to solve the problem.
“Most of the computers on those shelves would be recyclable or disposable, where they would be thrown in the trash or landfill. And we know this continues, but in Ghana in particular, it’s a valuable inventory. Making things last longer,” he says .
He says laptops that will only be used for a few years in the United States can have a lifespan of 10 to 15 years in Ghana due to the price of their coins.
Minter also tells how TV repair professionals in Ghana can take decades-old TVs and fix them to give them a moment of life. The key is to have the portions to fix those systems, which can be tricky with older models.
Robin Ingenthron, owner of Good Point Recycling, has taken it very seriously to accept the price of coins in recycled electronics. Minter says Good Point staff are experts in recovering discarded electronics, which are then sold on eBay for healthy profits.
“We don’t just want to be informed from the most complex recycling systems,” Minter says. “In many cases, what we want to do is be informed and reconsider what’s going on in emerging markets because, in many ways, they’re in front of us when it comes to what it means to have a circular economy. “
While many facets of recycling are evolving despite the pandemic, recycling of electronic products has been particularly affected as more and more companies have forced their painters to paint from home
The webinar was moderated by Craig Boswell, co-founder and president of Batavia, Illinois, HOBI International, and featured 3 industry experts: Walter Alcorn, vice president of environmental affairs at the Consumer Technology Association based in Arlington, Virginia; Sean Magann, vice president of sales and marketing at Sims Lifecycle Services, founded in Chicago; and Greg Voorhees, recycling manager in Minneapolis, Minnesota, MRM Recycling.
After a brief advent of Boswell, the three speakers discussed their opinion on a variety of issues that have an effect on the electronic recycling industry, the most vital of the moment, COVID-19.
For the electronics industry, COVID-19 has had a primary effect in more than six months. It’s harder to figure out how long those effects will last.
“Certainly, in the short term, COVID-19 is the big impact,” Alcorn said. “For the industry as a whole, it is a type of combined set. We’ve had a number of corporations whose sales increase COVID-19. We see a lot more remote work, distance learning. “
Alcorn added that the chains of origin are feeling the effects of the pandemic as it becomes difficult to respond to the demands, and Magann echoed this view.
Demand for more cloud area has increased largely due to COVID-19. Increased use of Netflix, Zoom, Dropbox and other online resources has led corporations to expand their knowledge centers. “More and more hardware, the hardware we have on our desks, will do less work,” Magann said. “I think the tension to return to this material, even with COVID-19, will be extended. “He added that much of what depended on the hardware now uses the cloud, such as wiring top boxes.
“It’s been hard for businesses and Americans to be fair by getting the PC hardware they want,” he said. Employees who used to use only desktop computers in the workplace now want laptops at home. Students who used to share a PC at home, with their siblings or families now want theirs to attend online education.
“For the last eight and a half years, while working at MRM, I was running in a home office, so I was used to running out of the house,” Voorhes said. “Even though I had an office in the house, it replaced my life radically because suddenly my wife came to the house, my children came to the house, the router couldn’t take care of it. “
Voorhees added that many states were final collections for months, making it even more complicated for those who can simply return to the material.
“Looking to the future, we are looking to perceive in the American landscape, how the customer’s habit will replace dropping their TV or other hardware into a collection event,” Voorhees said, adding that collection opportunities are becoming due to COVID -19, and that the resulting demanding situations can also have an effect on numbers.
If the pandemic is a global challenge, it is the only global challenge affecting chains of origin.
“With all the concentrate in China, it’s a number one supplier, or a position where the chain of origin exists for the electronics industry,” Alcorn said.
He added that the globalization of goods and products had existed for decades, but predicted that globalization would be ed up to date. “I think it’s going to put a lot of economic pressure on the evolved countries,” he said.
It’s too early to say when the chains of origin will return to a more general level, but Alcorn said he believes the e-recycling industry will have to continue adapting for some time.
“The vital thing to recognize is for the electronic source chain, the festival is so ridiculously difficult, things were becoming all the time to start,” Alcorn said. “The sense of play has developed, before you have 3 or 4 suppliers imaginable in East Asia, you are now looking in more countries, more amenities around the world. On the contrary, we will have to see how this industrial war unfolds. I don’t see many of these brands and suppliers of electronic components returning to the United States. States. “