Scrap processing and steelmaking firm creates “facility fee” to cover rising compliance, operations costs.

Portland, Oregon-based Schnitzer Steel Inc., which operates more than 90 scrap yards in the United States, reportedly is adding a $5 to $10 per ton surcharge called a “facility fee” to its ferrous and nonferrous purchasing transactions.

Reported by Argus Media April 13 and by Davis Index April 16, the fee structure took effect April 15, according to Argus, and applies to “all ferrous and nonferrous materials purchased at its locations.”

Schnitzer, which ranked as the fourth-largest ferrous scrap processing firm in North America in a recent Recycling Today list, will use a sliding fee scale depending on the facility’s state and city location “because of the differing costs of compliance and requirements to meet regulatory standards throughout the country,” according to Argus.

In the scrap processing sector, auto shredding has come under increasing air and water emissions scrutiny, with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control having particularly zeroed in on metals shredding. In Chicago, a new shredding plant with partial indoor operations has been unable to open under the Lori Lightfoot administration in that city.

In its April 16 article, Davis Index reported that scrap generators, likely including smaller dealers, demolition contractors, manufacturers and peddlers, are reaching out to Schnitzer’s competitors to see if they have or are planning to implement a similar fee.

The metals information service notes scale prices largely are poised to decline in late April and early May, based on global metals pricing trends, thus creating potential resistance. Davis Index writes that some scrap suppliers also object because “the new fee was unilaterally imposed versus negotiated,” which can be a more standard practice in the metal supply chain.

As of Sunday, April 17, there is no posted notice or explanation of the fee on the Schnitzer Steel Industries website.

The association’s New Jersey and New York chapters have signed two-year agreements with OSHA’s Region 2 office.

The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), Silver Spring, Maryland, has announced its New Jersey and New York State chapters, and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Regional Office in New York has signed a Regional Alliance agreement to help protect workers from health and safety hazards present in all aspects of the solid waste industry.  

OSHA Regional Administrator Richard Mendelson, SWANA CEO David Biderman, SWANA New Jersey Chapter President Brain E. Henning and SWANA New York Chapter President Luann Meyer signed the two-year agreement during a virtual ceremony April 14.   

“We are excited to be working with OSHA at the regional level to reduce the frequency of worker fatalities and injuries in New York and New Jersey," Biderman says. “There have been two fatal incidents in New Jersey over the past nine months that could have been prevented through better safety education, training and communications. This regional alliance will help SWANA expand its safety outreach to small haulers and others.”   

Swana says the alliance will work to reduce and prevent exposure to transportation hazards, like backovers, distracted driving, falls, needlestick injuries, heat and cold stress, musculoskeletal injuries and more. The alliance says it has a particular emphasis on outreach to small and medium-sized employers.  

“Public-private sector partnerships focused on worker safety and health training at all levels are a proven method to enhance worker safety in the waste collection industry,” Mendelson says. “Partnerships like these make a significant difference in ensuring workers can thrive in a culture of safety.”  

Swana says the alliance with the OSHA regional office in New York is another step in its commitment to reduce worker injuries and fatalities through awareness, training and education. 

The association has released its ‘Short Range Outlook’ for 2022 and 2023.

The Brussels-based World Steel Association (Worldsteel) has released its “Short Range Outlook” for 2022 and 2023, which forecasts that steel demand will grow by 0.4 percent this year, reaching 1,840.2 million metric tons, while 2023 will see additional growth of 2.2 percent, reaching 1,881.4 million metric tons. However, Worldsteel notes that the war in Ukraine creates a high degree of uncertainty.

World steel demand grew by 2.7 percent in 2021 compared with 0.1 percent growth in 2020, when pandemic-related restrictions were most acutely felt.  

Máximo Vedoya, chairman of Worldsteel’s Economics Committee, says, “This ‘Short Range Outlook’ is issued in the shadow of the human and economic tragedy following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We all wish for as rapid and peaceful an end to this war as possible.”

He says recovery from the pandemic in 2021 was stronger than expected in many regions, “despite continuing supply chain issues and COVID waves.” Vedoya continues, “However, a sharper than anticipated deceleration in China led to lower global steel demand growth in 2021. For 2022 and 2023, the outlook is highly uncertain. The expectation of a continued and stable recovery from the pandemic has been shaken by the war in Ukraine and rising inflation.”

Worldsteel says the magnitude of the impact of the Ukraine war will be varied by region based on the amount of direct trade and financial exposure to Russia and Ukraine. The effects on Ukraine are immediate and devastating, the association says, while Russia also is seeing consequences in the form of sanctions. Because of Europe’s reliance on Russian energy and its geographic proximity to the conflict area, it is experiencing immediate issues related to the conflict, too. Worldsteel adds that the impact will be felt globally via higher energy and commodity prices, especially raw materials used in steel production, and continued supply chain disruptions, which troubled the global steel prior to the war. Furthermore, financial market volatility and heightened uncertainty will undermine investment.

These factors plus low growth in China have reduced growth expectations for global steel demand in 2022, Worldsteel says. Additional downside risks take the form of continued surge in virus infections in some parts of the world, especially China, and rising interest rates. The expected tightening of U.S. monetary policy will negatively affect financially vulnerable emerging economies.

The outlook for 2023 is highly uncertain, according to Worldsteel, which assumes in its forecast that the Ukraine conflict will end in 2022 but that the sanctions on Russia largely will remain.

Additionally, the geopolitical situation surrounding Ukraine poses significant long-term implications for the global steel industry, Worldsteel says, including possible readjustment in global trade flows, shifts in energy trade and its impact on energy transitions and continued reconfiguration of global supply chains.

Chinese steel demand saw a major slowdown in 2021 arising from government measures on real estate developers, Worldsteel says. Steel demand in 2022 will remain flat as the government tries to boost infrastructure investment and stabilize the real estate market. The stimuli introduced in 2022 likely will support small positive growth in steel demand in 2023, while upside potential from more substantial stimulus measures is possible if the economy faces more challenges from the external environment.

In the advanced economies, despite the sporadic waves of COVID-19 infections and supply chain constraints affecting manufacturing, steel demand recovered strongly in 2021, especially in the EU and the U.S., Worldsteel says. However, the outlook for 2022 has weakened in light of inflationary pressure, which is further reinforced by the events surrounding Ukraine. The impact of the war will be particularly pronounced in the EU because of its dependence on Russian energy and the arrival of refugees fleeing the conflict. Steel demand in the developed world is forecast to increase by 1.1 percent and 2.4 percent in 2022 and 2023, respectively, after recovering by 16.5 percent in 2021.

In many of the developing economies, excluding China, surging inflation prompted a monetary tightening cycle. After falling by 7.7 percent in 2020, steel demand in the developing world excluding China grew by 10.7 percent last year, slightly less than Worldsteel predicted in its earlier forecast. In 2022 and 2023, the emerging economies excluding China will continue to face challenges from the worsening external environment, the Russia-Ukraine war and U.S. monetary tightening, leading to low growth of 0.5 percent in 2022 and 4.5 percent in 2023, the association forecasts.

Global construction activity continued to recover from the lockdowns to record growth of 3.4 percent, despite the contraction in China in 2021. The recovery was driven by an infrastructure push as part of recovery programs in many countries. These and investments related to the energy transition likely will drive the construction sector’s growth for years to come, according to Worldsteel. However, the construction sector faces some headwinds from rising costs and interest rates.

The recovery of the global auto industry in 2021 was disappointing as the supply chain bottlenecks arrested the recovery momentum in the second half of the year. The war in Ukraine is likely to delay any return to normal of the supply chain issues, especially in Europe, Worldsteel says. Despite the slump in global auto production, the electric vehicle (EV) segment grew exponentially during the pandemic, with global sales reaching 6.6 million units in 2021, almost double those of 2020. The share of EVs in total car sales increased from 2.49 percent in 2019 to 8.57 percent in 2021.

The Genesee County Land Bank Authority plans to demolish 2,410 homes.

The Genesee County Land Bank Authority (GCLBA), a government organization that manages tax-foreclosed properties, is moving forward with a $45 million plan to demolish more than 2,000 blighted homes in the county. The proposal was given final approval by Flint, Michigan’s city council April 12.

Most of the demolition will take place in Flint. The total number of houses set for demolition is 2,415, including 2,265 in Flint, 94 percent of the proposed program.

“There are about 7,000 households that sit next to these public blighted properties,” says Michael Freeman, executive director of the GCLBA. “If you do the math, there are about three people per household, so that's 21,000 people who are adversely affected by blighted structures in the city. That's roughly one-quarter of the population of a city that must deal with these properties.”

The goal of the project is to uplift the households located near the blighted houses. This project is expected to increase property values for the houses near blighted properties by 4.2 percent and decrease the abandonment in these communities by 2.5 percent.

Freeman says he hopes to demolish 500 homes by the end of the year. In 2023 and 2024, he says the organization plans to demolish 1,000 homes respectively. The land bank will select structures for demolition by using various criteria such as the rate of the building's decay and the sturdiness of its structure. It is also taking input from residents and the local governments.

“All these expenditures have to be completed by no later than 2026,” he says. “That's the federal grant period for completion. However, we would love to be able to do this in three years.”

During the demolition process, the authority says it will provide the city with the tools to identify privately-owned homes that need to be repaired or demolished.

The cost of the project will be split among three different entities. Flint will pay $16 million, while the county will pay $8 million and $21.3 million in grants will come from the state of Michigan and the Mott Foundation, a Flint-based nonprofit.

The GCLBA is undergoing a procurement process for demolition contractors in the area. Freeman says the organization will rely on various minority or female-owned businesses to demolish the homes in the program.

The GCLBA recently completed a similar demolition project which began in 2014, was completed in 2020 and cost $67.5 million, Freeman says. The organization demolished more than 4,000 homes in Flint during that period.

The company says it will showcase various products, including the VAZ single-shaft shredder and its VEZ 3200.

Germany-based Vecoplan will be exhibiting at IFAT 2022, a trade fair for water, sewage, waste and raw materials management that will take place in Munich May 30-June 3. Vecoplan says it will display a fully revamped version of its VAZ shredder at its booth, 270 M2.  

Vecoplan says the VAZ single-shaft shredder has a modular structure that makes it the right solution for a wide range of applications.  

The company also will exhibit its VRZ series shredder, which it says is designed for demanding applications and requires little maintenance. The key feature of this double-shaft shredder is its rotor. Instead of conventional cutting tools, it has sickle-shaped teeth that are designed to safely break up and shred bulky and soiled materials, Vecoplan says. The range of possible applications includes domestic and commercial waste, postconsumer waste and postindustrial waste. It can also pre-shred waste wood.  

Vecoplan also will showcase its VEZ 3200. This shredder for the refuse-derived fuel (RDF) market is a single-shaft machine. It is equipped with an almost maintenance-free HiTorc drive that is insensitive to extraneous material. The VEZ can handle difficult material flows with high impurity content in both pre-shredding and single-stage shredding, according to the company.   

IFAT also will see Vecoplan presenting systems for mechanical processing and material handling. The company says it supplies its customers with individual machines and systems for numerous mechanical processing procedures and that it delivers “complex, complete plants.” The company says it optimizes material flows and matches the components, achieving high energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness along the entire processing line.