Strong sales and market trends have accelerated Stadium Auto Parts' growth and profitability.

Hyman Wright founded Stadium Auto Parts in Commerce City, Colorado, in 1945 when he bought an auto garage that sold gas and shifted its focus to selling auto parts. The company eventually expanded with a parts warehouse, run by just two employees. 

In 1971, Hyman’s son Norman Wright took over as head of the company, which he has continued to grow. In March of this year, Stadium Auto Parts, which has 30 employees, opened a 38,000-square-foot auto dismantling facility in Commerce City that can handle 120 cars per month, soon to expand to 180 cars monthly. The facility merges the operations of two sites the company owned previously. The goal was to increase capacity, efficiency and space.

Wright doesn’t plan to slow down, however, setting goals to grow the company in the next three to five years by increasing how many cars Stadium can process, expanding Stadium’s staff and increasing revenue.

“We're seeing growth right now because there is a supply chain shortage and our parts are available,” Wright says. “A lot of the new parts are on backorder for three, four months. So, more collision and mechanic shops are looking to us to get cars back on the road.”

Wright says Stadium purchases most of the cars it processes through salvage auctions held in Denver. About six auctions occur per week, he says, selling about 3,000 cars total. Stadium purchases complete vehicles to avoid issues with stolen parts and chop shops. The company also makes purchases through private insurance companies.

Stadium typically purchases cars that are 10 years old or younger. This way, the parts still have some value and the risk of breaking down because of their age is minimal.

Once the vehicles have been purchased, they are brought into the new facility to be cataloged. Workers scan a car into Stadium’s digital inventory system called Pinnacle Professional from CCC Information Systems in Chicago. This includes the cars’ makes, models, years and colors, as well as photos of them, to include in its inventory. 

The parts are cataloged using Hollander Interchange by Solera, Minneapolis, a system that allows Stadium to find the parts and displays how much the part has sold for. Stadium tracks the vehicles by how long it takes to sell the parts to recover their costs, called inventory turnover.

“It offers a full gamut of management tools to run the operation,” Wright says of Pinnacle. “We track each vehicle by stock numbers. Our management reports include how long the car has been here, how much we sold off the car and a projection of what parts we'll sell.”

After a vehicle has been inventoried, it is taken to an 8,000-square-foot dismantling building, which has seven bays. There, one of eight dismantlers is given a list of the parts that need to be removed from the car. One dismantler can dismantle a car in half a day on average and is paid based on performance and how quickly and efficiently a vehicle is dismantled, Wright says.

Each dismantler is equipped with power and pneumatic tools, such as power saws and impact wrenches, from various suppliers. They also use car lifts and cranes to assist in the process.

Stadium is a full-service dismantling company that specializes in newer model cars. Wright says this positions Stadium well for the future relative to self-service auto recyclers because it can handle vehicles with modern technology.

While self-service companies require clients to come in and remove parts from cars themselves, the primary benefit of Stadium’s business model is the ease of access it offers to garages. The company will buy the car, dismantle it and sell the parts separately, so clients don’t have to come in and do it themselves.

“A shop is not going to send down one of their employees to pull apart the vehicle; it's too expensive,” Wright says. “So, we provide an ease of access that eliminates that burden.”

The company says it offers labor, extended warranties and lifetime warranties for the parts it sells. The warranties it offers are part of policies formed by Preferred Recycled Parts, Louisville, Kentucky, an organization made up of 140 independently owned auto recyclers in the United States. The purpose is to match or exceed the warranties offered by original equipment manufacturers.

Wright says the largest portion of the business Stadium does is with the collision and mechanical industry.

“The best way to recycle is reusing the parts of the product because it requires no more natural resources. A lot of our transactions are indirectly with the insurance company on the collision side,” Wright says. “So, shops purchase the parts to lessen the severity of the accident and for the delivery or shipping of the parts.”

When a vehicle is being processed, Wright says Stadium has a commodities manager who contacts scrap processors near the facility to sell their commodities. Every month, the manager determines which businesses offer the best price. The company typically sells 400 to 500 vehicles every three to four months. Once sold, Stadium will crush the vehicle for the processors to pick up.

Stadium works with six scrap processors in the Denver area. Typically, the company sells to All Recycling Inc., Western Metals Recycling or Evraz Recycling, all in Denver. Stadium also sells to companies that may not have shredders.

“It all depends on the price of the commodity at the time we're selling and who offers the best price and service,” Wright says. 

He adds that before selling the car, Stadium removes commodities such as aluminum and copper and sells them to other scrap processors. When the car has been completely stripped, it is sent to the shredder.

Wright has ambitious goals for his facility moving forward and plans to hire 20 more employees to meet growth in the next three to five years. First, he says Stadium is aiming to increase its volume from 120 cars per month to 200 cars and its production of 1,500 parts to 3,000 parts. He also has a financial growth goal of $15 million in revenue.

However, Wright does see obstacles ahead of the company related to how quickly the automotive market is changing. The biggest obstacle his company faces is the increase in hybrid and electric vehicles. Wright says they will become a big part of the market in 10 years. Despite this, he says, his company is preparing now for the shift.

“What we're doing is taking courses on how to handle electric batteries, electric cars, how to test the parts and determine what we need to save on them,” Wright says. “We’ve got to make sure our staff is properly trained and that the batteries are properly handled, so it doesn’t end up injuring a worker or damaging the operation as a result of a fire.”

Stadium is taking online classes through the Automotive Recyclers Association, Manassas, Virginia. He says the dismantlers also use rubber mats and gloves to remove electric batteries from the vehicles. The batteries are then stored in a container away from the facility to ensure that if there is a fire, it won’t affect operations.

Wright says he believes in the next 10 years, vehicles will shift away from consumer sales and focus more on wholesale. This is because the vehicles are becoming so technologically advanced that only professional repair businesses will be able to work on them.

PennWest, a forklift dealership, has three Pennsylvania locations.

Toyota Material Handling (TMH) has acquired PennWest Toyota Lift, a Pennsylvania-based forklift dealership with locations in Mount Pleasant, Pittsburgh and Erie. The acquisition was finalized July 1. The company will continue to be known as PennWest, with no change in management or staffing. 

“PennWest has been a respected part of the Toyota dealer network for years and a terrific representative of everything Toyota stands for,” says Steve Tadd, TMH director of marketing & dealer development. “This acquisition will ensure Toyota’s continued representation in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio and offer continued dependable support to PennWest’s customers.” 

PennWest Toyota Lift, founded in the late 1960s, has an extensive track record of success with Toyota, earning the company’s President’s Award in 2018 and 2020, TMH says. PennWest’s key executives and management will remain with the company and continue to manage the business on behalf of TMH for the foreseeable future.

“Toyota is the perfect match for our company,” says PennWest President Mark Gaier. “Toyota’s philosophy to place a high value on quality products, customer service and associates mirrors our values. The transition will be seamless, and our customers will see business operating as usual.” 

Assembly Ventures led the funding, with Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Novelis also contributing.

Fort Wayne, Indiana-based Sortera Alloys Inc., a scrap metal sorting and recycling company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) imagery, data analytics and advanced sensors to produce aluminum packages from shredded automobiles, has received $10 million in funding led by Assembly Ventures, with additional funding from Breakthrough Energy Ventures and aluminum producer Novelis.

Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Kirkland, Washington, previously invested $10 million in Sortera, which operates from a 10-acre production facility in Fort Wayne, with plans to expand through the end of 2022. 

Sortera says its AI-powered technology allows it to separate existing streams of mixed-alloy aluminum scrap into individual alloys. The upgraded metals can then be recycled back into the highest value applications, ranging from automotive cast and flat-rolled products to building, construction and aerospace materials extrusions. The company says its low-cost, scalable production process enables customers to reduce their CO2 footprints and achieve sustainability and circular production goals because recycled aluminum requires roughly 95 percent less energy to produce than aluminum produced from virgin raw materials.

“We are thrilled to have this important investment from Assembly, together with additional funds from Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Novelis,” says Michael Siemer, CEO, Sortera Alloys. “The funding will be used to help scale our operations, grow the team and provide high-quality metal recycling from automobiles.” 

"Sortera Alloys is a technology-driven startup that could only be created in the industrial heartland," says Chris Thomas, co-founder and partner at Detroit-based Assembly Ventures, in a news release about the investment. "For decades, automotive and manufacturing companies the world over have been working to implement truly circular supply chains. Sortera is poised to power efficiencies in industrial and manufacturing supply chains and create true circularity of manufacturing inputs, across the Western world.”

Sortera says the funding round follows a significant partnership with Novelis that will see Sortera deliver high-quality, recycled alloy derived from automotive scrap to Novelis, which will remanufacture the material into high-recycled content-aluminum sheet for the automotive industry. 

“The partnership with Sortera will allow Novelis to further increase the recycled content in our products, in particular, our automotive materials,” says Derek Prichett, senior vice president, corporate development, at Novelis. “This will enable us to meet our own ambitious goals of reducing our carbon footprint, as well as help our customers achieve their own sustainability goals.”

EAF mill components will be recycled as part of Salzgitter’s AG 2030 program.

Germany-based steel producer Salzgitter Group and Japan-based Showa Denko Carbon say they have forged a strategic supply partnership (SSP) that involves supplying and recycling electrodes used in electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking.

As part of what Salzgitter calls a reconfiguration of metallurgy within its low-carbon steelmaking program, “the requirements for ultra-high powered graphite electrodes are set to increase,” says the steelmaker.

Salzgitter has identified Showa Denko ?MEGA electrodes, described by the companies as a European-made ladle furnace electrode, as the proper alternative to electrodes most commonly “produced by off-shore suppliers.”

The electrodes used at Salzgitter mills are to be recycled in accordance with the “Salzgitter AG 2030” corporate strategy, says Salzgitter, which adds “the two companies also intend to collaborate on the issue of reducing their carbon footprint.”

Comments Mako Takeda, CEO of Showa Denko Carbon, “Showa Denko Group has positioned the idea of sustainability as the basis of our group’s management. The SSP with Salzgitter is a tangible example of how we can co-create with other industry leaders and generate social value through innovation and business.”

Ulrich Grethe, head of the steel production business unit, at Salzgitter, says “Partnering for circular solutions is a cornerstone of our new ‘Salzgitter AG 2030’ corporate strategy. The agreement with Showa Denko Carbon has enabled us to guarantee the steps we need to take to [ensure] upfront that the production of low-carbon steel via the new production route in Salzgitter can go ahead, starting at the end of 2025.”

The Salzgitter Group has more than 150 international subsidiaries and associated companies and employs more than 24,000 people worldwide. The company has a crude steel production capacity of 7 million tons.

Showa Denko Group Showa has about 33,800 employees worldwide and operates business units in the aluminum, petrochemical, chemical, electronics and other industry sectors.

AISI reports 1 percent week-on-week rise in production for week ending July 2, but output drops again during holiday week.

Steelmakers in the United States produced slightly more steel in the week straddling the end of June and the start of July compared with the previous week. That welcome advance in output, however, was followed by a decline during the week that included the July 4 holiday weekend.

Statistics gathered by the Washington-based American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) show in the week ending on July 2, 2022, steel output in the U.S. was 1.767 million tons. That represents a 1.0 increase in production compared with the 1.75 million tons made the previous week ending June 25, 2022.

The mill capability utilization (capacity) rate in the most recently measured week was 80.9 percent, also up slightly from the 80.2 percent figure the week before.

The week ending July 9, 2022, however, output fell to 1.748 million tons, representing a 1.1 decline from the week before. The mill capacity rate that week fell below 80 pecrent, to79.3 percent.

Year-on-year comparisons point to an overall first-half slowdown in 2022 compared with last year. In the week ending July 2, 2021, steelmakers produced 1.849 million tons while operating at an 83.4 percent capacity rate. The output figure is down 4.4 percent year on year.

Year-to-date production through July 2, 2022, stands as slightly less than 45.87 million tons, which is down 2.2 percent from the 46.9 million tons produced during the first half of 2021.

In the first half of this year, mills operated at an average capacity rate of 80.5 percent. That compares with a 79.4 percent rate averaged in the first half of last year.

In the week ending July 2, 2022, mill output was highest in the AISI Southern region, with 737,000 tons of output. Next highest was the Great Lakes region with 597,000 tons, followed by 204,000 tons in the Midwest; 165,000 tons in the Northeast; and 64,000 tons in the AISI Western region.