Recovery
3rd quarter 2011
From Eriez—Helping Move The Grade-Recovery Curve
How to
Make
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
Settling In
The per-ton difference that steel mills will pay for shredded scrap compared with heavy melt changes, but recently has found a common range.
The Finer Things
The new FinesSortÂŽ Jr. from Eriez helps Clayton County Recycling secure a higher recovery rate on small fines.
Ballistic Separator
Produces Premium #1 Low-Copper Shred ... increasing the value of your ferrous Eriez’ new Shred1 Ballistic Separator efficiently processes “consumer scrap” into a Premium #1 Low-Copper Shred ferrous product. Shred1 uses “ballistics” to automatically separate high-grade iron rich ferrous, from mixed metals and waste. Superior separation to x-ray sorting. TM
PREMIUM
PERMANENT Rare Earth Xtreme® Drum MAGNET
Increases ferrous recovery from 1 to 2%!
See how SHRED1™ is changing the way Ferrous is processed!
Fraction is <0.17% Copper
Ballistic Separator • Produces a Premium #1 Low-Copper Shred • #1 Shred contains less than 0.17% Copper • Eliminates costly air systems • Reduces picking labor • No x-ray scanning needed Call 888.300.3743 or visit
FerrousRecovery.Eriez.com Ferrous and Nonferrous Recovery Solutions
FerrousRecovery.Eriez.com
See us at ISRI 2012
Recovery table of contents cover story
letter from the CEO
How to Make Twitch
Eriez CEO Tim Shuttleworth comments on the renewed emphasis the company has placed on its service to the recycling industry.
4
8
The right shredder downstream system can help scrap recyclers create an aluminum twitch product that makes the grade.
technologist Q&A
6
A Rare Talent
In a wide-ranging career as a researcher at Eriez, Mike Ross has studied rare earth metals and many other aspects of magnetic.
market analysis
12
Settling In
The per-ton difference that steel mills will pay for shredded scrap compared with heavy melt changes, but recently has found a common range.
Recovery CHOOSE YOUR FORMAT! Recovery is available in a format to suit the way you read, research and travel. In addition to our ink-on-paper version, Recovery also is available through the Apple App Store and the Android Marketplace so you can read it on your iPad or Android-powered smartphone or tablet. Recovery is produced by Eriez 2200 Asbury Road Erie, PA 16506 814.835.6000 800.345.4946 eriez@eriez.com www.eriez.com
market analysis
12
16
Distant Dispatches
Reports on scrap metal supply and demand have been delivered at recycling conventions held throughout the world in the first half of 2011.
operational perspective
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16
The Finer Things
The new FinesSort Jr. from Eriez helps Clayton County Recycling secure a higher recovery rate on small fines.
products
22
Learn about the latest technologies available from Eriez.
19 Recovery Q3
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Recovery from the ceo Tim Shuttleworth President and CEO +1-814-835-6296 tgshuttleworth@eriez.com
E
riez has been focused on solving separation challenges and process flow issues for our customers for nearly 70 years. Our customer base, which extends to every continent in the world, also covers a wide range of industries, from mining and food processing to aerospace manufacturing and oil production. Lately the Eriez team has been very focused on one of our most important sectors, the recycling industry. This issue of Recovery, our magazine dedicated to the recycling industry, contains some important stories. There is a feature that explores the value of No. 2 shred and how it can add substantially to a shredder operator’s bottom line. You’ll also find a technical review covering how shredder operators can produce twitch. Beyond that are reviews of industry events we’ve recently attended along with an enlightening case study of how one operator benefit from an Eriez FinesSort®. There is a lot of work being done at Eriez to extend our value to the recycling industry. We’ve recently begun work at our new Wager Road facility in Erie, PA. This manufacturing plant greatly increases our capacity. Our Five-Star Service® Center also is moving to this facility, tremendously increasing our service capabilities. In order to be more responsive to our recycling industry customers, we also have reorganized, making recycling a stand-alone business unit within our heavy industries group. With that, Darrell Milton has been promoted to market manager for our recycling business. These are important changes as they will allow our entire organization to be more responsive in meeting product and service needs. Like our customers, Eriez also is deeply committed to workplace safety. I’m, therefore, very proud to announce that Eriez recently passed a milestone of 1,000 days with zero work-time loss injuries. As you all know it takes the total commitment of an organization to make that happen. The Eriez team has done tremendous work to ensure a safe working environment for all of our team members. As an organization, Eriez will continue to evolve to provide leading edge engineering and products to assist our customers in solving their most complex separation challenges. In fact, in response to the rare earth material limitations the world has heard so much about, we’ve developed an alternative technology for our P-Rex® permanent drum magnet. It offers the same great quality and recovery, and no exposure to international trade disputes! If you’d like to learn more about any of the information in this issue, or how Eriez might be of service to your business, please give me, or any of our associates, a call.
Tim Shuttleworth Q3 Recovery
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SUPERIOR
Ferrous Recovery “Once the P-Rex™ drum magnets were installed, we could see the improvement in ferrous recovery right away. We’re delivering a high-grade ferrous product.“ Marc Olgin – Liberty Iron - Phoenix, AZ
WITH
PERMANENT Rare Earth Xtreme™ Drum MAGNET
40% Stronger
TWICE the Reach!* *comparison of the Force Index ratings of standard electromagnetic drums versus P-Rex during normal operating conditions.
See how P-Rex™can generate additional profit for you!
”Not only do these new drums improve our ferrous recovery, they maintain that rate throughout the day. Even late in the shift, when our previous electro magnets would get hot and weaken, we don’t see any missed ferrous on the scavenger belts. P-Rex does a great job of pulling out all the solids and meatballs keeping them in one place where our hand pickers can easily remove them.” Joe Plumadore – Liberty Iron Call 888-300-3743 or visit Eriez.com
P-Rex Magnet
Ferrous and Nonferrous Recovery Solutions
technologist Q&A
A Rare
Talent
In a wide-ranging career as a researcher at Eriez, Mike Ross has studied rare earth metals and many other aspects of magnetics.
M
ike Ross describes himself as a “lifer” at Eriez, but even after nearly 40 years with the company, he enjoys the fact that “there is no telling what my next e-mail will bring in.” In an interview with Recovery, Mike discusses the broad spectrum of research he has engaged in, including research that helped make the P-Rex drum magnet the outstanding performer that it is. Q. When did you start to work for Eriez and what was your previous work and academic experience? Mike Ross (MR): I am a lifer here. My father started working here shortly after I was born. My earliest recollection of Eriez is from when I was about five years old. I worked in manufacturing and R&D during my four years of undergraduate study at Penn State, where I studied civil engineering. I was fortunate to be offered a position as a process engineer in R&D at Eriez after completing my degree. I did this for about 13years, running tests and doing process development work in the lab and field. The variety was incredible—from minerals to foods and everything in between. I also completed an MBA in international marketing at Gannon University during this time. Personal computers were just appearing in the market at that time. I spent many evenings learning these machines and writing software that others then used to design and analyze magnetic circuits. At this time we introduced finite element analysis software (ANSYS) to the
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company. I used ANSYS for its first structural application. Since I had so much experience with these new machines, I was asked to transfer to the engineering department and guide the transition of the company from drafting boards to computer-aided design (CAD). This work included advancing the design of several different magnetic separation products. During the evenings I was learning magnetic equipment design at the same time. I did this for about 15 years. For the past five years or so I have been back in R&D doing magnetic fi-
nite element analysis (FEA)-based design work for the entire Eriez organization. I receive e-mail requests on a daily basis from all around the world asking for assistance on projects involving some sort of magnetic device. I’m pretty busy. But in the evenings now I am growing and feeding a beef cattle herd.
Q. For how long have you been studying rare earth magnetic materials and what have been some of the goals of your research? MR: Rare earth magnetic materials have been commonly available since the 1980s. During that time we began to apply them to separation equipment, replacing heavy electromagnetic devices. What really changed the use of these was the developing dominance and reduction in cost by the Chinese. The very low costs allowed magnetic circuits to be developed that would never have been considered earlier. The goals of our research have always been and should continue to be satisfying a recognized need for a customer. Recent cost increases in China have changed the field once again. We have something new soon to be introduced, greatly reducing the rare earth magnet costs while maintaining all of the benefits—plus introducing a few new ones.
Q. What did Eriez ask you to do for them as they set out to design the product that would become the P-Rex? MR: One cold winter day I received an e-mail from Tim Shuttleworth, our
q u o ta b l e
“The first installation was hands-down a success; it was that obvious immediately after installation. It works as designed and advertised.”
company president, asking if I thought a permanent magnet scrap drum separator could be developed to replace the electromagnetic variety. Within a couple of days I thought it could be done. After some 50 or 60 FEA iterations, we had a product. I get a great deal of satisfaction in seeing design work turn into products. Not enough research and development work really goes that far. This quickly became something different. I was free to determine the initial performance specifications and, fortunately, they were at a high enough standard to satisfy later requests. I knew what we needed, since I had been involved with the electromagnetic design for about 15 years. My goal was to design a separator that could exceed the performance of the electromagnet and at the same time solve its problems. We succeeded completely and with a product that at that time could be cost competitive with the electromagnetic drums.
Q. What materials or design aspects make the P-Rex unique? MR: I am sure everyone who is faced with competing with P-Rex would like very much to know the design aspects that make P-Rex unique! I’d prefer to keep it that way. We are publishing a paper showing the results of the design
without detailing how it is done. Since physics applies equally to all, anyone else can figure it out just as well as I did.
Q. What are some of the discoveries made during the P-Rex process that can help Eriez as it designs other new products? MR: I think any great product is a culmination of a lot of little discoveries and a bunch of great people. It also takes one person such as Tim Shuttleworth with the drive to make a product successful. Eriez has made investments in plasma and laser-cutting technology, robotic welding, advanced metal fabrication and computer-assisted modeling and design. We used all of these things to hatch PRex. Even more important, our manufacturing people are very capable craftsmen. Without their talent P-Rex could never have been safely built.
Q. To what extent were you involved with P-Rex field testing, and what was learned during that process? MR: For more than two years, I have traveled all over the country and Canada inspecting both ours and our competitors’ drums. I have watched them operate, measured the magnet fields and other data and listened to the operators’ complaints, needs and wishes.
P-Rex gives consistent performance, higher recovery and a cleaner product. The first installation was hands-down a success; it was that obvious immediately after installation. It works as designed and advertised. The most obvious indication was that scavenger magnets over the nonferrous stream recovered nothing after the P-Rex installation. There is no ferrous metal being missed by P-Rex.
Q: How has the recent volatility in rare earth minerals pricing affected P-Rex? MR: P-Rex has opened users’ eyes to the realization that a stronger and consistentstrength drum provides better recovery than the traditional electro axial drums. Plato said, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Now we have been forced to invent a stronger drum that did not require rare earths or did not require as much rare earth. The same tools at my disposal to design the P-Rex, computer finite element analysis, robotics, numeric-controlled machines and laser-guided coil winding, are all still within our technology base at Eriez. In fact, Eriez CEO Tim Shuttleworth has never refused to buy analytical tools I have requested. Plus, we built upon those many little discoveries we unearthed when we created P-Rex. The result is two new designs; one stronger than P-Rex yet requiring a small fraction of the rare earth materials and costing less than P-Rex and another design in strength between traditional electro-axial drums and the much stronger P-Rex. Both of these preserve the important benefits of consistent strength and no dropping of material as it moves from the pick-up zone to the top of the drum. This will be unveiled at the Mike Ross next ISRI Annual Convention. Recovery Q3
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cover story
How to
Make
The right shredder downstream system can help scrap recyclers create an aluminum twitch product that makes the grade.
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cover story
T
he market for aluminum scrap experiences its ups and downs in both pricing and demand, as does any scrap market. For the most part, however, a recycler who can ship desirable grades of aluminum scrap can find buyers for the material. Metals shredder operators have increasingly found receptive buyers for the shredded aluminum scrap grade “twitch.” Twitch is the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI) specification name for the shredded aluminum grade described this way: “Floated fragmentize aluminum scrap - derived from media separation device. Less than 1 percent free zinc, 1 percent free magnesium, 1 percent iron, 2 percent non-metallics, 1 percent rubber and plastic.” The creation of twitch from the diverse feedstock acquired by auto shredder operators is no easy task and requires the properly configured array of equipment. Product and project managers work together at Eriez to advise shredder operators who want to produce twitch on how they can best go about the task.
The Eriez DensitySortTM Air Table (above) is part of a multi-step process to turn a portion of metals shredder feedstock into an aluminum Twitch scrap product. The diagram below portrays the numerous other shredding and downstream sorting steps involved in the process.
EDDY’S ON THE TEAM Dan Norrgran, a researcher at Eriez, says optimal twitch production starts by first deploying drum magnets that capture all the ferrous scrap. The non-magnetic fraction then ideally is directed to a trommel screen, says Norrgran. The trommel screen most often creates one-inch plus and one-inch minus streams, he notes. “Common size material always yields better separation,” adds Norrgran’s colleague Mike Shattuck. Each fraction is then directed to eddy current separator units. The units “separate the conductors from the non-conductors,” says Norrgran. “The eddy current is great for getting out copper, brass and aluminum and some zinc,” he adds, creating a mixed nonferrous metal stream that goes to one conveyor and a mixed (largely) nonmetallic stream that heads off down a different conveyor belt. (As an aside, Norrgran mentions that stainless steel fragments may still be part of the nonmetallic stream at this point, requiring the later attention of a product such as the Eriez ProSort machine to rescue it for later retrieval.) Eriez describes its eddy current sepa-
MAGNETIC SCRAP DRUMS 1
SHREDDER
MAGNETIC FERROUS
NON-MAGNETIC NONFERROUS
EDDY CURRENT SEPARATOR 2
+1” Material
TROMMEL SCREEN
FINESSORT® SEPARATOR
- 1” Material
(EDDY CURRENT SEPARATOR)
2
NON-MAGNETIC NON-CONDUCTIVE
ZORBA
DENSITYSORT™ AIR TABLE 3
ZEBRA
TWITCH
Recovery Q3
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cover story rators as consisting of “an external drum, an internal permanent magnetic rotor, a drive and belt conveyor.” As an eddy current separator operates, “Through the induction of eddy currents and the resulting repelling forces, the alternating magnetic field selectively repels the nonferrous metals and physically separates them from other materials with minimum product loss.” The company’s Xtreme Eddy model uses “huge curved blocks of rare earth magnets,” in this case for “select hightonnage applications, where maximum recovery is required.” Shattuck says the Eriez Xtreme® eddy current’s advantages include reaching deeper into the field and having a long throw distance. For one-inch minus material, Eriez recommends its FinesSort Separator, an eddy current designed specifically to capture smaller metallic pieces.
lars annually,” he “Scrap yard opadds. erators often only The high-frefocus on reclaimquency FinesSort ing larger sized Separator can renonferrous metals, cover greater than ignoring smaller 90 percent of the material referred nonferrous pieces to as ‘fines,’ which presented to it, acrepresents roughcording to Eriez. ly 15 percent of When feedthe original total ing eddy currents, flow,” says ShatNorrgran says its tuck, who is Eriez’ important to keep Product Manthe material flow ager – Recycling. “When you con- The proper equipment can separate Zorba even and in one layer. “You’re gosider that within (top) from aluminum Twitch (bottom). ing to get interferthe fines, general- [Photos courtesy of Paragon Metals ence from other ly less than 5 per- International, www.ParagonMetals.biz.] pieces of material cent is recyclable metal, the stream may seem insignificant, if they are lying on top of each other, so but reclaiming these valuable metals can ideally, a mono-layer is the best way to be worth hundreds of thousands of dol- feed these.”
RRT Design & Construction 125 Baylis Road, Melville, NY 11747-3895 631-756-1060 / 631-756-1064 fax www.rrtenviro.com Q3 Recovery
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cover story The Match Game
Among the issues that recyclers and their equipment suppliers must address jointly is matching up the right size of equipment to a recycler’s anticipated volume of material. Dan Norrgran of Eriez says a formula that is often applied matches the tons per hour with the width of the eddy current belt (or other piece of equipment’s surface area). “For fine material, if we have a 60-inch-wide belt, we can run a certain number of tons per hour of feed,” he comments. The same logic applies to the DensitySort AirTable made by Eriez, says Norrgran, with a measure of tons per square foot per table area being a key metric.
SEEKING LIGHTWEIGHTS To produce twitch, Eriez advises that the mixed nonferrous metal stream that leaves an eddy current separator should then go to its DensitySort Air Table unit. “It’s sort of like an air hockey table,” Norrgran says of the DensitySort. “It shakes and has air blowing through it. Aluminum is light and is moved by the air nozzles,” he continues, “so the DensitySort is able to make that separation to get a clean aluminum product, which becomes your twitch.”
PULVERIZER COMPANY 1319 Macklind Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri Phone: 314-781-6100 / Fax: 314-781-9209 e-mail: sales@ampulverizer.com www.ampulverizer.com
ASR Mill
The DensitySort is designed to handle either ¼-inch-by-1-inch or 1-inch-by-2inch fractions without a change to the setup of the machine. Eriez says the smaller fraction of nonferrous fines (also known by the ISRI specification name “zorba”) typically contains from 8 to 12 percent heavy metals. The DensitySort uses its combination of air, vibration and slope to separate without requiring a media base such as sand, water or filtration to achieve the separation.
As product is fed at the high point of the table’s slope, its own specific mass directs the product to the low or high side of the table, creating the upgraded aluminum scrap product (twitch) as well as a heavy product containing nearly 80 percent heavy metals by weight. As a fluidized bed of material is maintained, the heavy products sink to the bottom of the burden and travels to a discharge point. The light fraction (aluminum) remains on top of the burden and travels to a different low-side table discharge point. Any product that does not get separated on the first pass re-circulates until it reaches the appropriate discharge, says Eriez. The end result for automobile shredder operators is the production of an aluminum twitch product that meets the ISRI specification and/or the specifications desired by the end consumer or broker seeking to buy the twitch grade.
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Complete Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metal Separation Packages
American Pulverizer Co., of St. Louis, Missouri offers a center-feed, high-speed hammermill for processing Auto Shredder Residue (ASR) designed to yield a higher metal recovery percentage. The shredded product that is created reduces material to a more manageable state that can be reprocessed through metal separators to yield higher recovery rates from non-ferrous metals. The mills are designed for high production with minimal maintenance. Design is based on years of experience with ASR and other E-Scrap products. Recovery Q3
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t e t I S ling n market analysis
S
crap recyclers buy shredding plants for many reasons, including gaining access to forms of obsolete scrap that may otherwise go to competitors. Installing a shredder brings with it a considerable upfront investment followed by a parade of operating costs (such as power, maintenance and wear parts). A potential selling point is the per-ton price that can be fetched for shredded ferrous scrap vs. the grades produced by shears and balers. The number of variables that can differ from plant to plant and from one regional market to another make it difficult to conclude whether the spread between shredded grades and cut grades helps make a shredder installation worthwhile. Comparing monthly national averages paid by domestic steel mills for No. 2 shredded scrap and No. 1 heavy melting steel (HMS) only provides a blurry snapshot, not a crystal clear photo. But looking at data from the previous several years at least points to some trends or clues as to when and how the spread between these two grades moves. Q3 Recovery
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provided by By Brian Taylor
The per-ton difference that steel mills will pay for shredded scrap compared with heavy melt changes, but recently has found a common range. A NATIONAL YARDSTICK Data collected by Management Science Associates Inc. (MSA), Pittsburgh, for its Raw Material Data Aggregation Service (RMDAS) has provided a monthly national average for domestic steel mill scrap buying since 2006. RMDAS (http://rmdas.msa.com) collects mill scrap purchase transactions by geographic region and by grade and averages them over 30 days. Among the most common ferrous scrap grades purchased and tracked are: Prompt industrial grades (No. 1 bundles, No. 1. busheling and No. 1 factory bundles); No. 1 HMS; and No. 2 shredded scrap, defined as containing 0.17 percent or greater copper content. Looking at the RMDAS data for prices paid for No. 1 HMS and No. 2 shredded scrap from January 2008 to May of 2011 shows that the value of the two grades demonstrates some consistencies (No. 2 shredded always fetches more per ton on average) but also a number of variables over time as well.
DIGGING INTO THE DATA Perhaps the first set of numbers to look at consists of the averages over the course of this three-and-a-half-year span. The market for ferrous scrap has zoomed from bull to bear and back to bull from January 2008 to May 2011. The 41-month-span provides ample opportunities to observe the market from peak demand periods on the one side (the first seven months of 2008, for instance) to some months where steel
mills in the United States were operating at below 40 percent of capacity (January 2009). The average price paid by mills for No. 2 shredded scrap during this 41-month roller coast ride has been $352 per ton, while the average per-ton price for No. 1 HMS has been $315. This yields an average monthly spread of $37 per ton between the two grades. While $37 is the average spread, the market has been volatile to an extent that this average was created despite several “outlier” months where the spread was either far wider or narrowed somewhat. At the height of the bull market for ferrous scrap, in July of 2008, the steel mills in the United States reporting to MSA paid $80-per-ton more for No. 2 shredded compared to No. 1 HMS—the widest spread recorded during the 41-month span. (The only other two months when the spread exceeded $70 per ton were the two months directly following July 2008.) The narrowest spread occurred not during the ferrous scrap market’s absolute lowest month in the past four years (which, according to RMDAS data, would have been in April 2009) though it was in a month when the market took a dramatic step backwards. In November 2009, the value of No. 2 shredded scrap fell by nearly $30 compared with the month before, and domes-
tic mills paid on average just $19-per-ton more for No. 2 shredded compared with No. 1 HMS. November 2009 marked the narrowest spread in the most recent 41 month span, though it is joined by a $20 spread the month before and two months with a $21 spread in 2010 as among the narrowest spreads.
A NARROWER VIEW A second way to calculate an average spread over time is to determine what percentage the monthly spread represents of the per-ton price of No. 2 shredded scrap. For example, while the $19 monthly spread in November 2009 represented the lowest spread by dollar amount, that figure represented 8.05 percent of the $160-per-ton domestic mills paid for shredded scrap that month. By percentage, recyclers were rewarded the least for shredded scrap in May of 2010, when the $21 spread between the two grades represented just 5.90 percent of the $365-per-ton paid by domestic mills for shredded scrap. The $80 spread in July of 2008 represented 13.42 percent of the $596-perton paid by domestic mills for the No. 2 shredded grade that month. That percentage is well above those in the low
Shredded Scrap vs. HMS, 2008-2011 No. 2 Shred/Avg. $ Per Ton
No. 1 HMS/Avg. $ Per Ton
Avg. Spread
Avg. of Spread as Percentage of No. 2 Shred Price
$352.51
$315.24
$37.02
10.86%
Source: RMDAS, MSA Inc., http://rmdas.msa.com Recovery Q3
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market analysis months mentioned in the previous paragraph but is not among the five highest “reward” months for ferrous shred. Using this measure, shredder operators received their healthiest premium when the ferrous scrap market was struggling in November of 2008. Domestic mills paid just $160 per ton for ferrous shred—but that was at a $41 spread over No. 1 HMS, representing 25.63 percent of the total price of No. 2 shredded scrap.
The following month, shredder operators were rewarded with a $47-perton spread over No. 1 HMS, representing 19.75 percent of the total price of No. 2 shredded scrap. The trend as the market has slowly returned from its trough in late 2008, however, has been for this monthly percentage figure (the spread divided by the per-ton price for No. 2 shred) to narrow. Over the 41-month period, the spread
between No. 1 HMS and No. 2 shredded scrap has averaged 10.86 percent of the $352-per-ton paid for No. 2 shred. The most months when this figure was more than 10 percent, however, was between January 2008 and June 2009. In the most recent 23 months, only once has that monthly spread been more than 10 percent of the per-ton cost of No. 2 shredded scrap—and only barely—in December 2009 at 10.20 percent.
Shredder Payoff (Months when Spread as Percentage of No. 2 Shred Price was the Highest) Month
No. 2 Shred/$ per ton
No. 1 HMS/$ per ton
Spread
Spread as % of No. 2 Shred Price
Nov. 2008
$160
$119
$41
25.63%
Dec. 2008
$238
$191
$47
19.75%
Jan. 2009
$250
$201
$49
19.60%
Sept. 2008
$378
$306
$72
19.05%
Aug. 2008
$541
$463
$78
14.42%
Source: RMDAS, MSA Inc., http://rmdas.msa.com
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provided by During the market’s recent relatively stable stretch from January 2010 to May 2011, the spread’s percentage of the perton price for No. 2 shredded scrap has averaged 7.83 percent. Recyclers have learned not to count on conditions staying the same for long, so to try to identify something as a trend is a dubious exercise. However, since July of 2009 the difference that domestic mills will pay for
shredded scrap compared with HMS has settled at below 10 percent of the total value of No. 2 shredded scrap—no matter how much the per-ton price moves up or down every 30 days. This is in stark contrast to the January 2008 to June 2009 period, when in each of those 18 months the spread mills paid was always more than 10 percent of the per-ton cost of No. 2 shredded scrap and averaged 14.49 percent..
If the volume of shred is now matching demand to the point where the premium has narrowed, it will test shredder owners to keep their operating costs low and to wring the highest quality and largest volume of ferrous and nonferrous scrap from their plants. The author is associate publisher and editorial director of Recycling Today and can be contacted at btaylor@gie.net.
A Narrower Margin (Months when Spread as Percentage of No. 2 Shred Price was the Lowest) Month
No. 2 Shred/$ per ton
No. 1 HMS/$ per ton
Spread
Spread as % of No. 2 Shred Price
May-10
$356
$335
$21
5.90%
Jul-10
$319
$298
$21
6.58%
Oct. 2010
$342
$318
$24
7.02%
Jun-10
$345
$319
$26
7.34%
Nov. 2010
$361
$334
$27
7.48%
Source: RMDAS, MSA Inc., http://rmdas.msa.com
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www.hydrothrift.com Recovery Q3
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market analysis By Brian Taylor
Distant D is patch e s Reports on scrap metal supply and demand have been delivered at recycling conventions held throughout the world in the first half of 2011.
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provided by
T
he scrap metal markets move fast from day to day or month to month, and in the first half of 2011 so too have those who process and trade scrap metal. The spring months of 2011 brought with them several opportunities for metals recyclers to attend industry conferences and conventions to trade, gather information and shop for the equipment that will prepare their scrap commodities for shipment. Following are summaries of some of the sessions and programs that took place at three different conferences or conventions in the first half of 2011.
BIR, SINGAPORE At the Nonferrous Division Meeting at the 2011 Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) World Recycling Congress, Division President Robert Stein of Alter Trading, St. Louis, asked guest speakers to consider whether copper has become “the next gold.” Stein pointed to “the startling way in which this metal has displayed its resilience to economic disaster,” adding, “No industrialized economy on Earth can do without it; it is a vital ingredient in infrastructural growth and it attracts attention almost unknown among its base metal counterparts.” Beyond its industrial demand, Stein said of copper, “The commodity has been financialized to a much higher degree than ever as the investment community continues to use the metal as a source of leveraged speculation.” Guest speaker Christian Schirmeister of J.P. Morgan Metals, London, noted that copper inventories had been building in China. “It will take some time, but these stocks will find their ways to consumers,” he remarked. Schirmeister did not express alarm about the increased use of ETFs (exchange-traded funds) as a way to invest in copper, saying the “financial sector still does not replace underlying physical
10 years. supply and demand” Although petroas the main factors in leum scarcity may be copper pricing. the most prominent Glen Gross of example of why natuPittsburgh-based ral resources and raw Wimco Metals, was materials markets will not as convinced, be bullish, Rogers referring to fund insaid, “The supply of vestors in the copper nearly all raw matemarket as “ghosts that rials is declining at a haunt and influence time when demand is our daily business.” going up. It’s why raw Said Gross, “They are materials are now in the unseen financial a bull market that will flows that regularly go on for some time.” rocket and torpedo Speaking to his our markets. Today, The BIR World Recycling Congress audience of metbecause of these in Singapore this spring attracted als recyclers, Rogers ghosts, I find that recyclers from around the world. added, “You’re in the markets act the opposite of what our brains tell us. Manag- right place at the right time. You guys, ing risk seems to consume an inordinate everybody loves—they love what you amount of our time and has created the do. You’re not evil financiers.” China’s production and consumption most challenges.” Guest speaker Miguel Garcia of of steel and other raw materials has been Spain’s LaFarga Lacambra gave the point a major factor and would continue to be, of view of a red metal scrap consumer. said Rogers. He was less optimistic about “The markets for raw materials follow India developing along the same lines. The steel and ferrous scrap industries a cyclical model based on supply and demand,” he commented. “In the 21st may be tied into a “raw materials bubcentury, the sharp increase in demand ble,” said Rogers, but he doesn’t see that had as an effect a tripling of the prices of bubble popping until 2018 or 2020. The 2011 BIR World Recycling Con[red] metals between 2002 and 2008.” Recyclers and scrap consumers are gress was May 23-25 at the Shangri-La poised to benefit from the “scarcity of Hotel in Singapore. natural resources,” said Garcia. “The recycling of raw materials will become an important industrial activity. A world CHINA INTERNATIONAL market for ‘green’ products and services METAL RECYCLING is expected to double [in revenue] from CONFERENCE, 2011 to 2020.” GUANGZHOU Several scrap companies combined to sponsor hedge fund manager, author When Christian Rubach, president of the and frequent financial commentator Jim BIR Ferrous Division, looks at the world Rogers as the guest speaker at the BIR’s now vs. 10 years ago, he sees a number Ferrous Division meeting. of roads that have led to Asia and to inDuring his presentation and as he creased secondary commodity use. answered questions from attendees afterSpeaking to delegates of the Fourth ward, Rogers made clear his opinion that China International Metal Recycling producers of basic materials and holders Conference, Rubach, who also is a seof raw materials would play a pivotal nior advisor with Germany’s TSR Recyrole in the global economy in the next clingGmbH & Co., said the recycling Recovery Q3
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market analysis
provided by
industry now employs some 1.6 million important. If there are [restrictive] export Council for the Promotion of International Trade (MC-CCPIT), was May 13-14, people worldwide and collects, trades laws, the whole system will not work.” and processes some 800 million metric Rubach pointed to Russia and 2011, in Guangzhou, China. tons of secondary commodities. Ukraine as nations where scrap export Much of the recent growth in recy- barriers have been erected. “This has a cling has been spurred by the surge in big effect on Turkey,” he commented. “It economic activity in China and other then looks to Europe and the East Coast ISRI, LOS ANGELES Asian nations, Rubach noted. He showed of the United States” for ferrous scrap. Ferrous scrap markets were the topic a chart of the world’s largest companies Regarding when China’s steel produc- of numerous sessions at the Institute of (based on market capitalization) in 2000 tion would plateau and when it would be Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI) and in early 2011 and pointed to the ma- self-sufficient in ferrous scrap, Rubach Convention & Exposition, held in April jor differences. pointed to a recent study that predicted in Los Angeles. “In 2000, [these] companies came that China should reach its steelmaking Panelists at the Ferrous Spotlight seslargely from the U.S.A. and Japan and plateau in 2024 or slightly earlier. sion included Randy Ehret of steelmaker were mostly technology and telecomChina’s ability to supply its own steel- Timken Co., Canton, Ohio. Ehret said munication companies,” he said of a list makers with scrap will not necessarily Timken had recently purchased a midthat contained Cisco Systems, Vodafone, occur then, said Rubach, because much sized scrap yard in Akron, Ohio. NTT Docomo and Nippon Telegraph. of China’s scrap reservoir will still be While Timken was uncertain whether “In 2011, the mining and enit would purchase more yards, ergy industries have taken the Ehret said “there is a logical realead, and three of the 10 largest son” for a steel company to own companies are from China,” he a scrap company: “Those [steel said of the updated list that concompanies] who do not have actains Petrochina, two Chinese cess to assured supply will be at a banks, Petrobras of Brazil and disadvantage.” BHP Billiton of Australia. Patrick McCormick of World Fund managers also are inSteel Exchange, based in Englevesting in a newer financial inwood Cliffs, N.J., said “everyone strument—the exchange-traded is concerned about price volacommodity fund (ETF). tility” in the steel supply chain, Citing information from the from steel consumers to scrap FAZ research report by United suppliers. States-based Direxion Funds, RuMcCormick said he saw a bach showed attendees how in- Inside a session room at the Fourth China International scrap reservoir that was large vestors had placed some $7 bil- Metal Recycling Conference. enough to meet demand for lion in commodity-centric ETFs scrap, though it often strained to as of early 2006. By the end of 2010, that part of buildings and large public works do so. In those stretches where demand figure had grown to $163 billion invest- structures. recedes, China will step in “when [fered in exchange-traded commodity secuIn the near term, nations like Turkey rous scrap] is a great buy.” rities. “The financial sector is heavily in- and China that need to import scrap He also noted that China’s ferrous vesting in raw materials,” stated Rubach. could run into supply issues or problems scrap deficit was bound to shrink as In the recycling industry, Asia’s “getting enough scrap if the economies obsolete consumer products begin to growth has meant that Turkey (steelmak- of the United States and European Union hit scrap yards there. However, as that er for the fast-growing, oil-rich Persian improve,” said Rubach. point nears, China’s central government Gulf region) has become a major ferrous “In the long run, there will always may encourage the construction of more scrap importer, bringing in from 15 to 19 be enough scrap, but in the short-term electric arc furnace (EAF) steel mills. million metric tons of ferrous scrap year- there can be lacks of scrap and tight iron The 2011 ISRI Annual Convention ly since 2006. South Korea has remained ore markets,” Rubach concluded. “This was held at the Los Angeles Convention an active scrap importer, while China shows we need to make recycling even Center April 6-9. and India have become larger importers. more important than it already is today.” “We see a global imbalance of scrap The Fourth China International Metal The author is associate publisher and availability vs. scrap demand,” said Ru- Recycling Conference, organized by editorial director of Recycling Today and bach. The situation “makes free trade so the Metallurgical Council of the China can be reached at btaylor@gie.net. Q3 Recovery
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r e n i F ings
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operational perspective Clayton County Recycling actually began in 1988 in Belmont, Wis., as a one-yard auto salvage operation. Runde expanded the company in 1994 by purchasing 10 acres of cornfield adjacent to a railroad line in Monona, Iowa. Today, the company owns feeder yards in Madison, Holmen and Wonewoc, Wis., along with the original yard in Belmont. The feeder yards, according to Runde, play a vital role in supplying suitable scrap consisting of old car bodies and parts, obsolete appliances and outdated agricultural equipment. The feeder yards are strategically located within 80 to 100 miles of the company’s main shredder operation in Monona, which has now become the hub of Clayton County Recycling’s operations. “Our shredder went online in 2006, allowing us to become more than a shearing, sorting and baling yard here in Monona,” Runde says. “At that time, we installed one eddy current separator that gave us the ability to recover nonferrous metals. That was great, but we still needed something else for fines 1 inch and smaller. We ran our fines over the same eddy current at the end of the day when regular production was finished, but found that even after running them twice, we still were not getting all the metal out.” That’s when Runde contacted Eriez, a Pennsylvania-based company known for designing individual units or complete
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An example of the nonferrous metals recovered from the auto shredder fluff Clayton County Recycling is processing with its Eriez Fine Sort Jr., which uses a 24-inch axial interpole pulley magnet and a 60-inch Eriez Xtreme Eddy Current Separator.
systems for the recycling industry. After some analysis and investigation into Clayton County Recycling’s operation, engineers at Eriez developed a unique smaller scale metal recovery system to handle 1-inch and smaller fines. The new FinesSort Jr. was installed at Clayton County Recycling in fall of 2009, according to Runde. With the new equipment, Clayton County Recycling now processes up to 30 tons of fluff per hour, with the fines going directly to the FinesSort Jr. and the remainder of the shredder fluff going to the company’s original eddy current separator.
DRAWING A FINE LINE Typically, scrap yard operators have been concerned with reclaiming larger sized pieces of nonferrous metal. The smaller sized materials that pass through the initial screening process are sometimes discarded and sent to landfill. This smaller material, referred to as fines, can represent up to 40 percent of the original total flow. Within the fines, generally less than 5 percent is recyclable metal, depending on the mix of material being shredded. Although 5 percent of the fines or just 1 percent of the total stream might seem insignificant, reclaiming these valuable metals can be
operational perspective
worth hundreds of thousands of dollars annually for scrap yard operators. A number of larger recycling centers across the country have installed Eriez’ FinesSort multi-stage Metal Recovery System. The system contains a vibratory feeder, rare earth pulley magnet, rare earth drum magnet and a permanent magnetic eddy current separator. Eriez engineered the FinesSort Jr. for recycling operators like Clayton County, which need a smaller-scale system to recover fine metal particles and maintain profitability. Essentially, the FinesSort Jr. is built with a 24-inch axial interpole pulley
magnet and a 60-inch Eriez Xtreme Eddy Current Separator. This design was more than adequate for Clayton County to recover 1-inch and smaller fines in one pass while using a separate eddy current separator to recover larger particles, according to Runde.
NOW PART OF THE PROCESS At Clayton County Recycling, the processing starts when scrap metal is routed into its 2,500-horsepower, 80/104 shredder, manufactured by St. Louis-based
American Pulverizer. The shredder handles 85 tons per hour, or the equivalent of 700 tons per day, of scrap, according to Runde. The nonferrous material trapped in the shredder fluff is then conveyed into a tumble-back conveyor, which helps meter the pulverized material into a 20-foot-long-by-6-feet-in-diameter trommel screen. As the material tumbles through the trommel screen, it is diverted to separate belt conveyors. Any material 1 inch or larger heads to the original eddy current separator; any smaller material heads into the FinesSort Jr. The recovered fines product emanating from the FinesSort Jr. is so clean that Runde is able to get a premium price for the material. He also points out that his crew has re-run the rejected material and can find no significant amount of metal on the second pass. That’s good for Clayton County, knowing it isn’t sending any appreciable amount of metal or profit to the landfill. “The FinesSort Jr. was specifically installed to recover the 1-inch and smaller fines, aluminum, brass and copper,” Runde says. “The goal was better recovery of the metal content, especially since it contains a lot of dirt. This system got us a cleaner product and more metal than the original eddy ever could. We are very pleased with the FinesSort Jr. It does a great job.”
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products A look at product offerings from Eriez designed for the scrap industry to boost productivity and material quality.
Xtreme® Eddy Current Separators Eriez’ Xtreme® Eddy Current Separators feature a concentric rotor design and utilize Xtreme rare earth magnets to induce eddy currents into metallic particles, producing repelling forces that separate metallics from non-metallics. Xtreme Eddy Current Separators are designed to separate aluminum and other nonferrous metals from infeed material derived from electronic scrap, automobile shredder residue, trash, co-mingled recyclables and more.
DensitySort® Air Table A Media Free Option for Fines Sorting The DensitySort® Air Table is designed to sort nonferrous fines into light and heavy fractions. This can significantly improve value. The DensitySort Air Table uses air, vibration and slope to separate the fines fraction. It does not require a media base, such as sand, water or filtration. As product is fed at the high point of the table’s slope, its specific mass directs the product to the low or high side of the table, providing an upgraded high grade aluminum product (twitch) and a heavy product containing nearly 80 percent heavy metals by weight. Once a fluidized bed of material is maintained, the heavy products sink to the bottom of the burden and travel up the table to a discharge point. The light fraction remains on top of the burden and travels to the low side of the table. Any product that does not get separated on the first pass recirculates until it reaches the appropriate discharge. The DensitySort can process 0.25-inch-by-1-inch and 1-inch-by-2inch fractions without changing the machine’s setup. More information is available at http://en-us.eriez.com/Products/Markets/ Recycling/densitysorttm. Q3 Recovery
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Recovery eriez worldwide With 12 manufacturing plants on six continents and a global network of factory-trained representatives, getting professional assistance with your toughest processing problems is quite simple. You may reach our plants by any of the following means:
United States
Phone: 814-835-6000 Fax: 814-838-4960 eriez@eriez.com
Australia
Phone: 61-3-9305-4099 Fax: 61-3-9305-4042 eriezaus@eriez.com.au
Shred1™ Ballistic Separator The Shred1™ Ballistic Separator from Eriez uses ballistics to separate iron-rich ferrous scrap from much of the mixed metals and waste material in the postdrum-magnet flow. The Shred1 delivers three distinct fractions: a premium, lowcopper content No. 1 shred; a traditional No. 2 shred; and a heavy/light/waste mix. When the Shred1 is combined with Eriez’ P-Rex® permanent rare-earth magnetic drum, the system is referred to as the CleanStream™ Process. The CleanStream Process is designed to recover more ferrous and to concentrate 75 percent of the post-drum-magnet flow into a low-copper premium shred. It also eliminates the need for a scavenger magnet, a z-box air system and hand picking the entire flow. The Shred1 Ballistic Separator can produce the following fractions: • A high-value, low-copper content ferrous product with a higher value than
a No. 2 shred fraction. Fraction one represents 60 to 80 percent of the incoming material flow and contains less than 0.2 percent copper. • Fraction two is approximately 20 to 30 percent of the incoming material flow and contains mostly mixed metals, copper and aluminum with steel housings or cores. Hand sorting can be accomplished with relatively few pickers because only a fraction of the total shredder discharge must be picked. • Fraction three consists of heavy steel objects and light material, such as fluff, rubber and some wire. This fraction can be picked with the second fraction or stock piled and reprocessed later. Fraction three contains 5 to 7 percent of the incoming material flow. More information is available at http://en-us.eriez.com/Products/Markets/ Recycling/shred1ballisticseparator.
China
Phone: 86-21-31261766 Fax: 86-21-38763610 eriez@eriez.com.cn
Europe
Phone: 44-29-208-68501 Fax: 44-29-208-51314 info@eriezeurope.co.uk
India
Phone: 91-44-2238-5071 Fax: 91-44-4507-8383 emil@emil.co.in
Japan
Phone: 81-473-546381 Fax: 81-473-547643 eriez-jp@eriez.co.jp
Mexico
Phone: 52-55-5321-9800 Fax: 55-5310-3358 eriez@eriez.com.mx
South Africa
Phone: 27-11-444-9160 Fax: 27-11-444-9166 eriezmag@iafrica.com
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“Our waste is virtually “metal free”… and now we’re able to sell high-grade fractions that used to be sent to landfill. Eriez’ sorters have proven to be reliable and the company very responsive.“ Rubino Brothers - Stamford, CT
“Our waste is virtually Metal Free” Recovery increase of: +76% +47% +17% +7%
Stainless Steel Copper Pickings and Wire Zorba Product Nonferrous Fines <1-inch (@ 1,000 lbs/hr) And a Fluff reduction of: -10%
Rubino Brothers installed Eriez’ FinesSort® and ProSort sorters to improve metal recovery. The chart to the left is an analysis of the their metal recovery rates of post-eddy waste since their installation. If you’re interested in achieving these types of results, contact Eriez at 1-888-300-ERIEZ to schedule a free production-scale test!
Fluff to the landfill
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