This is the company’s first location in Georgia.

National Equipment Dealers (NED), Lexington, North Carolina, has  finalized the acquisition of Grove River Machinery, an equipment dealership based in Richmond Hill, Georgia. The acquisition will expand the NED organization into Georgia, where the company says it plans to grow more in the future. 

“With this merger, Grove River Machinery is turning a new, exciting chapter in our 20-year history,” says Dale Richbourg, former sales manager at Grove River Machinery. “Our merger with NED will provide us the means to grow our Hyundai market share way beyond our past capabilities."

According to a news release from NED, Grove River Machinery represented the Hyundai product line for the last 14 years. 

NED now has 14 locations with its latest acquisition. The growth plan for the NED Savannah branch will include a broader product offering. The branch will continue to sell Hyundai Construction Equipment and will expand its offering to include Bell articulated dump trucks, along with other products, which will be added in the future. 

“As fellow Hyundai dealers, we have known the Richbourg family and Grove River Machinery for many years,” says Mitch Nevins, CEO of NED The timing is right, and we are excited to bring them into the NED family. We look forward to investing time and resources in Georgia to expand our customer base with Hyundai, Bell Trucks and other products.” 

The new location in Savannah will be renamed NED, per NED’s current companywide rebranding strategy.

State’s DTSC says SA Recycling's Southern California shredder and export yard creates metal residue, affecting soil and water quality.

The Sacramento, California-based Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) says SA Recycling must investigate residual metal pollution levels at its metal shredding and exporting facility on Terminal Island at the Port of Los Angeles.

SA Recycling should “investigate the extent of soil, groundwater and ocean sediment contamination” on its property and an adjacent property at the site, which previously was operated by Simsmetal West LLC.

The facility has been operating since 1962, the agency says. DTSC claims its own investigations have “found metal shredder residue called light fibrous material on the pavement, in pavement cracks, on equipment and inside and over storm drains at a neighboring facility, Pasha Stevedoring & Terminals LP.”

Samples of that material exceeded hazardous waste levels for lead, cadmium and zinc, DTSC says, which adds that it has ordered SA Recycling to “curtail those releases and to develop a plan to clean up the contamination at the nearby facility.”

In 2017, DTSC says its inspectors “found treated metal shredder residue trapped in an outside wall” at SA Recycling and “elevated levels of zinc, copper, and lead in a huge on-site pile.” The following year, DTSC says metal shredder residue was detected in the adjacent Yusen Terminal yard and on New Dock Street to the south of the shredder yard.

The agency states, “The respondents must meet certain deadlines to take action to stop releases and submit required investigation reports to DTSC, including a workplan to determine the extent of contamination and for cleaning up the contamination they find. DTSC plans to notify the surrounding community so residents can become involved in any proposed cleanup plan.”

As the series of inspections indicates, the DTSC has made metals shredding a focus of its activities, with information about the campaign front and center on its website.

The agency previously tried to enforce emergency action against the entire sector, but that proposed action was withdrawn in September after a one-week comment period elicited feedback from the Washington-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) and other organizations.

Panelists will offer a peer-to-peer perspective on what goes into selling a business.

Selling a waste business can be a complex and uncertain endeavor for many owners, especially within the waste and recycling industries.

With major players such as LRS, Waste Connections and GFL making waves in the space through high-profile acquisitions, learning from those well versed in the buying and selling of a business can provide significant benefits.

At Waste Today’s 2021 Corporate Growth Conference, attendees can gain first-hand knowledge from industry veterans on how to ensure a straightforward sale during the session “What I’ve Learned Selling My Waste Business.”

Featuring panelists Anthony Lomangino, former owner and CEO of Southern Waste Systems (SWS); Mike Malatesta, former owner and CEO of Advanced Waste Systems; and James Devlin, former CEO of Valicor Environmental Services, the session will offer a peer-to-peer perspective on what goes into selling a business, lessons owners should know to avoid potential hurdles, and best practices for ensuring a smooth transition.

Lomangino—an experienced CEO whose career spans retail, residential and commercial environmental services companies, material recycling facilities and real estate investments—helped transform Southern Waste Systems and Sun Recycling into a full-service vertically integrated solid waste management organization.

Sun operations grew to 14 recycling facilities located throughout Southeast Florida and became the industry’s largest privately held recycling company producing record level waste diversion numbers. The companies were acquired by Waste Management in January 2016.

As for Malatesa, the successful entrepreneur and business executive founded, built and sold two of the largest environmental services companies in the Upper Midwest. One sold for mid-eight figures, and the other sold for low-nine figures. In 2018, he founded a podcast called “How’d It Happen?” that explores the stories of successful people from all walks of life.

Devlin, who is now chairman of the board and CEO for Inframark LLC, helped build Valicor into one of North America’s largest providers of non-hazardous wastewater treatment services. Through a series of strategic acquisitions, Devlin increased the company’s number of centralized wastewater treatment plants from five to 14 in just over 24 months in an effort to grow its national footprint.

This year’s Corporate Growth Conference will take place Nov. 4 at the Loews Chicago Hotel. To register, visit here.

Domestic demand remains strong, and export interest has increased for some aluminum scrap grades.

Nonferrous scrap metals are flowing well as of mid-October, despite the transportation-related issues that continue to affect supply chains in the U.S. and globally.

“In general, demand is still really good,” says a marketing executive with a scrap processing company that handles postindustrial material at multiple locations in the Midwest and Southeast.

He says spreads have remained consistent for aluminum extrusions and other rolling mill grades in recent months, though pricing has increased. However, spreads have widened for painted siding and other secondary grades, the marketing executive says, and demand has strengthened as well.  

“On the secondary side, things were kind of quiet,” he says. “And now it appears like pricing is a little bit more attractive.”

The shortage of silicon and magnesium is increasing demand and pricing for aluminum scrap with this content, he says.

A vice president of marketing and trading with another multilocation scrap processor based in the Midwest says the rising price of the common alloy A380 has brought up scrap prices on the secondary side, despite ongoing production issues in the automotive sector related to the semiconductor shortage. “We can sell our secondary aluminum, and right now prices are pretty decent.”

Joel Fogel, executive vice president of nonferrous for Cohen, Middletown, Ohio, also mentions the widening of spreads for common alloy material, such as mixed low-copper clips and siding. He notes increased export interest in this material, too. “That’s a different dynamic,” Fogel says. “I don’t know that we’ve seen global competitiveness as it relates to the domestic number on the aluminum side for several years.”

The marketing executive describes export demand for aluminum scrap grades such as pucks and turnings as “pretty healthy” with good pricing.

“We’ve been pretty attentive to our export business recently,” he says, noting that transportation bottlenecks require close monitoring. “We’ve been keeping close contact with transportation and operations. Last week, everything that was scheduled to ship shipped on time. We thought we turned a corner,” he says in mid-October. “Today, not a single one of three export loads shipped because we could not get containers.”

While Fogel says aluminum scrap is moving well, some primary mills are pushing out deliveries. “You can’t really sell and ship in the same month.”

The marketing executive says he sees demand remaining strong through year-end, adding that he sees “no signs of things slowing down.”

Fogel says talk of infrastructure investments in the U.S. and globally are pushing commodity prices higher. This is compounded by “all of the supply chain issues and labor issues and the optimism in the terminal and financial markets,” he adds. “I think it’s a perfect storm; there’s not one reason why everything’s up. There are multiple reasons. I personally feel like we might not continue to ascend the way we are. But I really see and feel that the markets will remain stable for the next several quarters.”

Demand and pricing remain strong for red metal scrap.

“The market ran up quite a bit since the middle of last week, and spreads haven’t widened, and that tells you something,” the vice president with the Midwest-based scrap company says. “It’s an indicator of strong demand.”

“As it relates to copper, spreads haven’t moved very much as the market’s gone up,” Fogel says, adding that he thinks things will become more competitive for copper scrap with the capacity additions that have been alluded to in North America.  

He says, “I think there will be more demand for secondary-type copper in the United States that hasn't existed.” He adds that this increased demand should work to narrow or maintain spreads.

According to Davis Index, spreads did begin to widen Oct. 19, when Comex copper closed at $4.71 per pound, an increase of 39 cents per pound from Oct. 12. The news and pricing service adds that many market participants expect the Comex copper price to reach $5 per pound before the end of October.

While Todd Safran of Safran Metals in Chicago says red metal scrap is flowing well, the high prices have some consumers sitting on the sidelines. He says some consumers need prompt deliveries, while others are one to two months out.

Issues with trucking could be contributing to the need for prompt deliveries at some copper consumers, he speculates. Cost-effective trucking is difficult to come by, Safran says, though it is generally available. “For the right price, anything can move. But the wrong price can kill a deal pretty quickly.”

The vice president with the Midwest-based scrap firm says domestic and export demand for red metal scrap remains strong. Because of the supply chain issues, he says, “No consumer wants to lose much scrap.” 

Company’s new track-mounted screeners intended for several applications, including recycling.

United Kingdom-based Powerscreen says it has launched its new Titan range of mobile secondary scalping screens. Powerscreen, a brand of United States-based Terex Corp., says the Titan models “provide a cost-effective solution in high volume, smaller sized or recycling applications.”

The Titan range and its three models—the Titan 600, Titan 1300 and Titan 2300—are described by Powerscreen as a simplification of its Warrior range but tailored “to a different section of the market at an attractive price point.”

Says Sean Loughran, Powerscreen’s business line director, “As we continue to review the global market, we are seeing a split in the applications in which our Warrior range is being used. While some are screening large sized materials, others are being used as secondary scalpers, such as after a crusher, or in the recycling market—screening topsoil, C&D waste and biomass materials. The Titan range has been specifically designed with the customer, for the customer as a more cost-effective machine to cater for those secondary or recycling screening applications. It has both a range of features and unrivalled performance that will increase the bottom line of any of its owners.”

Powerscreen says the Titan 1300 and Titan 2300 have undergone testing in various applications. Comments Sean Keenan, Powerscreen’s applications training manger, “Overall it’s fair to say that our customers have seen the Titan machines enabling them to process a higher volume of quality material when compared to their previous units.”

Information on how to contact regional Powerscreen dealers about the Titan line can be found on this web page.