Nonferrous traders say policymakers need a greater understanding of scrap’s role in global decarbonization efforts.
Two members of the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) Non-ferrous Metals Division board conveyed frustration with policy makers in the European Union and elsewhere for creating scrap trade barriers at the very time scrap can help metals producers shrink their carbon footprints. The division met in late May at the BIR World Recycling Convention in Barcelona.
Murat Bayram, who works from Germany for United Kingdom-based EMR Ltd., pointed to the looming danger of introducing a ban on scrap exports through revision of the EU Ordinance on Transboundary Shipments of Waste.
Adverse impacts to recycling profitability and capacity may result during periods when there is insufficient demand from European consumers for material, Bayram said, adding, “The solution is to keep markets free."
Bayram continued, “This really is five minutes to 12:00; we won’t be able to invest in technologies, we will not be able to recover the materials.” He urged those in attendance to contact policymakers to clarify the benefits of international scrap trading.
Non-ferrous Metals Division board chair Dhawal Shah of Mumbai-based Metco Ventures said there is visible growing support from governments for circular economy concepts, sustainability and decarbonization. Yet, Shah said, there was “a disconnect” when it comes to government policies directed at some of the very businesses that were delivering on this “greener” agenda, including importers and exporters of scrap material. He expressed the hope that the future would bring “a better understanding” among policymakers.
Inka Guixà, chief executive of Spain-based copper producer and melting technology provider La Farga, commented that the global scrap market “needs to be free.” She said if society was demanding sustainability, “this means that competitiveness needs to have free access.”
Shah told assembled delegates that every external development—from the COVID-19 pandemic to conflict in Ukraine and from higher energy costs to rising inflation--had “become a reason for hyper-volatility.”
Faced with such “chaos” within metal markets and the wider world, Shah had the following advice for recyclers: “You need to be on top of your risk management.”
Bayram listed what he called three dominant themes mentioned by industry contributors: energy cost inflation; lack of labor, including “huge problems in finding truck drivers”; and falling secondary aluminum prices tied to struggles within the automotive industry.
Demand prospects overall, however, appear bright. Guixà pointed to projections of a doubling in copper demand to 60 million metric tons per year by 2050, driven by the metal’s role in sectors such as renewable energy, electrification, e-mobility and digitalization. This represents “a very good opportunity for the recycling sector,” she said.
Some 14 million tons of copper are generated annually and yet perhaps only 9 million metric tons is converted to metal. Thus, Guixà said, “There are 5 million [metric] tons that are lost along the way.” One challenge, she said, is to innovate to maximize recovery while also meeting finished metal quality requirements.
Tom Eng, a senior vice president with technology provider Tomra Recycling, was bullish about growth prospects for aluminum. Demand in Europe alone was expected to jump 40 percent between 2018 and 2050, he said, driven mainly by the transportation, building/construction and packaging sectors.
Eng said established and emerging technologies, including X-ray transmission and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, can deliver the higher qualities of scrap that would be required to feed this demand growth. Improved sorting brings many benefits for recyclers, he remarked, including higher margins and reduced transportation costs resulting from increased sales to nearby melt shops.
The 2022 BIR World Recycling Convention was May 22-25 in Barcelona.
The Bureau of International Recycling says transboundary trade in ferrous scrap rose nearly 10 percent in 2021.
The Ferrous Division of the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling has published the 13th edition of its “World Steel Recycling in Figures,” which contains global steelmaking and ferrous scrap trading figures for the years 2017 to 2021. The statistics for 2021 showed that despite trade policy and supply chain disruptions, cross-border ferrous scrap trading increased last year.
The print edition of the 44-page booklet was distributed at the BIR Ferrous Division meeting in late May in Barcelona by BIR Ferrous Statistics Advisor Rolf Willeke and Ferrous Division President Denis Reuter of Germany-based TSR Recycling. The 2021 edition also contains a new subtitle: “Steel Scrap - a Raw Material for Green Steelmaking.”
Citing “official trade statistics” and German steel federation WV Stahl, the BIR says global external steel scrap trade—including trade between EU nations—amounted to 109.6 million metric tons last year, representing a 9.7 increase compared with 2020.
Turkey last year again was the world’s largest ferrous scrap importer, bringing in slightly less than 25 million metric tons, or 11.4 percent more than in 2020, according to BIR. The country’s main supplier was the United States, from which it booked 3.77 million metric tons (down 13.7 percent from the 2020 volume).
Brexit changed the scrap trade dynamic in the EU. In 2021, the EU-27 took over as the world’s second-largest steel scrap importer, raising its import volume by 31.1 percent to more than 5.36 million metric tons. The region’s new main supplier was the United Kingdom, which supplied more than 1.63 million metric tons of ferrous scrap to its former EU compatriots.
The U.S. was the world’s third-largest ferrous scrap importer last year, bringing in more than 5.26 million metric tons. The majority of that scrap (3.75 million metric tons, or 71 percent) came from Canada.
Nations with rising ferrous scrap appetites in 2021 were South Korea (up 8.9 percent to nearly 4.8 million metric tons); Thailand (+18 percent to 1.65 million metric tons); Malaysia (+9.8 percent to 1.53 million metric tons); and Indonesia (+3 percent to 1.46 million metric tons).
Countries buying less overseas scrap in 2021 included India (-4.6 percent to 5.13 million metric tons); Pakistan (-8.4 percent to 4.16 million metric tons); Belarus (-14.7 percent to 1.14 million metric tons; and Canada (-21 percent to 815,000 metric tons).
Although China was by far the world’s largest steelmaker in 2021, BIR says its statistics indicate ferrous scrap consumption in that nation was 2.8 percent lower last year. Nonetheless, the 226.2 million metric tons consumed there means the country remained the world’s largest scrap user, thanks in part to an 11.5 percent increase in scrap-intensive electric arc furnace (EAF) production.
Steelmakers in the EU-27 nations upped their ferrous scrap intake by 16.7 percent (to 87.85 million metric tons) in 2021. In the U.S., steelmakers melted 18.3 percent more scrap, rising to 59.4 million metric tons of consumption.
Scrap surplus nations and regions with active export markets included the EU-27 as the world’s leading steel scrap exporter in 2021. It grew its outbound shipments by 11.5 percent last year, shipping out 19.46 million metric tons, with Turkey buying 13.1 million million metric tons, or 67 percent of the total.
U.S. export activity increased by 6.1 percent last year, rising to 17.9 million metric tons. Its largest buyer was an overland destination, with Mexico acquiring 3.14 million metric tons, or 17.5 percent of that total.
The booklet also offers steel production statistics accumulated by the Brussels-based World Steel Association (Wordlsteel). Member nations of that organization contributed to a 2021 global crude steel production of 1.952 billion metric tons.
China’s steel output fell by 3 percent in 2021 compared with the year before, but it still accounted for 56.6 percent of the Worldsteel output total.
Steel output rose in many other nations in 2021 compared with the year before, including in the EU-27 (+15.4 percent); Japan (+15.8 percent); India (+17.9 percent); the U.S. (+18 percent); Russia (+5 percent); South Korea (+5 percent); Turkey (+12.7 percent); and Canada (+18.1 percent).
Also, according to Worldsteel, global basic oxygen furnace (BOF) production was essentially flat last year at 1.381 billion metric tons. EAF production, on the other hand, was higher by 14.4 percent compared with 2020, rising to 563 million metric tons.
The 13th edition of the BIR “World Steel Recycling in Figures” booklet can be viewed here.
Invema’s Wendt M6090 shredding plant features an array of equipment from North America.
Wendt Corp., Buffalo, New York, has announced the sale of a Wendt M6090 shredding plant to Honduras-based Invema. The company says this is the first shredder in Central America and provides Invema with a competitive advantage by creating a new premium product, increasing volumes and opening new markets.
Invema CEO George Gatlin started the company with his father in 1994 after recognizing the environmental and economic benefits recycling could bring to Honduras. It began with three employees recycling aluminum cans and has grown to 487 employees. Invema says it is now a recycling center for all nonorganic waste and the largest plastic recycler in the region, supplying Coca-Cola in Honduras and El Salvador with 50 percent recycled content for its polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles.
“I’ve always wanted to be a step ahead,” Gatlin says. “I am a very competitive person, and I believe competition makes you try to be better.”
Gatlin says he recognized the opportunity for a shredder in the Honduras region for his company and the various people that supply Invema with material daily.
Invema’s Wendt M6090 shredding plant features an infeed conveyor, Bowe Disc Rotor, Wendt AutoDriver controls, a downstream system with a single mag stand and a 1,500 horsepower AC motor with a variable frequency drive (VFD). Representing the first Wendt shredder with a VFD, the technology allows Invema to maximize the shredder’s production while minimizing its operating cost by taking advantage of the drive's ability to control the motor's power consumption and peaks. Wendt Corp. says this is especially important due to the high cost and limited availability of power in the region.
Invema’s auto shredder operation will be commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2022 and be located outside of San Pedro in Honduras. Invema plans to process 5,000 tons per month with its new M6090 shredder and has plans for further expansion with additional processing equipment soon.
Gatlin says many factors went into choosing the shredder that would best fit the company's needs, including customer service and reputation.
“Wendt continues our strategic growth initiative as we expand into new markets and regions with the first shredder to be installed in Central America,” Wendt Corp. President Tom Wendt says. “We look forward to the opportunities the shredder will provide to Invema as well as continuing to grow our relationship with the Gatlin family.”
The company will provide waste collection services to the city of Port St. Lucie starting Sept. 5.
FCC Environmental Services, a waste management and recycling company that services customers across the U.S., has been unanimously awarded a $450 million contract by the Port St. Lucie City Council to provide waste collection services for the city.
The contract is good for seven years with an associated backlog of $300 million, in addition to a three-year extension option that brings the total backlog to $450 million. The venture has a total investment of $47 million and will add more than 110 employees to FCC’s current workforce.
U.K.-based scrap processor says sorting leads to lower carbon footprints.
United Kingdom-based European Metal Recycling (EMR) says its work to separate and recycle materials begins as soon as it arrives at one of the company’s 60 U.K .scrap yard sites.
”Ferrous metals such as steel require very different processes than nonferrous metals like copper, aluminum, and even precious metals,” says the multi-location processor. “Elsewhere, EMR’s plastic recycling business MBA Polymers deploys some of the world’s most advanced processing technologies.”
“Developing advanced separation processes means EMR can cut the quantity of material from our sites which ultimately goes to landfill,” says Anthony Marrett, managing director of EMR Invenens, in the U.K.
“Equally, our separation technology allows us to sell on materials with a very low carbon footprint to customers for a wide range of specifications for applications including new cars, electronics and construction.”
To focus on metal, producing high-quality recycled material involves a continual process of separation using traditional magnets and eddy current separators, but also over 100 other separation techniques across our various sites, says EMR. This gradually allows EMR to refine the metals toward our target of low carbon furnace ready materials.
Marrett describes the process as being like the branches of a tree: “Some of the removal techniques EMR uses can be quite simple but the sophistication comes with when and in which order you choose to utilize them,” he comments. “At each point there will be different lines for each metal like branches of a tree. As they break off, our teams are concentrating on separating the metals and removing unwanted material.”
Continues Marrett, “On the copper ‘branch’ this could mean separating off trace amounts of ferrous or aluminum, for example. This continues until we’re able to deliver a recycled metal that meets our customers’ exacting demands.”
The final product is then analyzed and quality controlled by EMR’s laboratories to confirm the purity of the metal. EMR says it has invested in new and better ways to separate both metals and plastics, to keep up with market expectations. These include cutting-edge technologies like robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
“Our sites are supported by a research and development center where we are able to trial various other separation technologies,” says Marrett. “Alongside our team of experts, we have graduate students working on cutting-edge science to ensure we’re constantly improving and innovating our separation technology,”.
One of the most exciting areas of innovation is in the use of data to maintain quality, find efficiencies and ensure the chemical make-up of the material EMR sells is accurate within the smallest of margins, says the company.
“Data is becoming the most important element when developing new and advanced separation technique,” Marrett comments. “That means using the information from our laboratories to ensure our sites have the best information possible and that our research teams can find novel ways to use our existing separation equipment more efficiently.”
As the demand for sustainable material grows innovation is key, EMR says it will keep developing and enhancing its processes further, enabling the business to “preserve and recover more of Earth’s valuable resources” to create low-carbon products.