Masters of metal recycling Kuusakoski

MASTERS OF METAL RECYCLING

Kuusakoski is a global leader in the recycling and refining of waste metals and plastics. Philip Yorke talked to Petri Halonen, the company’s CEO about its latest ‘green’ technology, its focus on the recycling of electrical goods and moving into new markets.

Since it was founded in 1914, the Finnish company Kuusakoski has been committed to recycling natural raw materials. Recycling and refining waste metals in an environmentally friendly manner has also been a priority at Kuusakoski since it was first established. Therefore the company has a vast amount of experience in the recycling and refining of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, as well as stainless steel and more recently plastics. To meet the growing needs of today’s modern manufacturing industries, Kuusakoski continuously invests in new technologies to optimise the supply of its recycled raw products to the Far East, Europe, the USA and the Nordic countries. The extensive facilities at Kuusakoski enable it to produce recycled materials in both small and large quantities to the precise composition specified by its customers to suit their individual manufacturing requirements.

Kuusakoski also provides its customers with advanced logistics systems and expertise to ensure that there are no interrupted material flows in production or in its worldwide delivery services. In 2011, the aggregate total volume of material being handled by the company was more than 2.5 million tonnes.

Kuusakoski has more than 100 operational locations worldwide, of which 20 are in Finland, with others in Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, the UK, the USA, China and Taiwan. The consolidated turnover of the Kuusakoski Group in 2011 was almost €1 billion and currently the group employs more than 3200 people worldwide of which 1700 are employed in the recycling division.

Today Kuusakoski is a global market leader that is capable of offering more dedicated, tailor-made solutions for its clients than many of its competitors. Kuusakoski supplies secondary steel and aluminium ingots to foundries and steel mills worldwide, as well as exporting aluminium, non-ferrous and plastic scrap materials to international markets.

Recycling of electrical goods

One of the most difficult and often most neglected areas of recycling is that concerning electrical goods. This involves more complex procedures than the recycling of many other products. At an early stage, Kuusakoski realised that this trend in demand was likely to continue and invested heavily in the design and manufacture of specialised, environmentally friendly technology to address the growing global demand.

Hanonen said, “As an independent, family owned business we are able to be more flexible than many of our competitors and believe that we also have the edge when it comes to our advanced technology for

processing ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Today our main focus in geographical terms is the US market where we are now well established in Chicago and Philadelphia. We are looking at the whole big picture for recycling there and in particular we have invested heavily in new technology for the recycling of electrical goods, where we see a global increase in demand. This is an area where we have a clear technological advantage. We have also recently opened a sales office in China, but most of our recycling operations are carried out at our major plants in Sweden, Finland, Russia, Denmark, the UK and the USA.

Hanonen added, “As we go forward we are aware that the market is becoming more and more crowded due to the fact that it is a financially attractive market to be in. This is mainly because it is likely to continue to see strong growth for the foreseeable future. However, growth in the mature markets has now stabilised and it is the emerging markets, where recycling is still in its infancy, that the main growth will come from in the future. As a result, our strategy is to go where recycling is still a relatively new industry. This means China, Brazil and South East Asia. We are also constantly monitoring world markets. In many cases you need to be well established in a country in order to understand and comply with the domestic legislation and local trading requirements. In fact, recycling is becoming very much a legislation driven business.”

Optimising ‘greener’ recycling processes

Kuusakoski has always placed a high priority on its care of the environment and production processes. Today the company’s advanced environmental care systems form an essential part of its overall environmental management strategy. This is designed to create the most environmentally friendly procedures during its many recycling processes. Kuusakoski works closely with government and local officials, as well as industry experts, to continuously develop and improve its recycling systems. As one would expect, the company is accredited to ISO 9001 management standard, as well as to ISO 14001, the international environmental certification.

Halonen commented, “When it comes to processing efficiency, we believe that our well developed ‘clean technology’ facilities put us ahead of the field. It is the nature of our business and so has always been a priority for us at Kuusakoski. We also attend and contribute to, many conferences and semi-

nars throughout the world and work closely with our customers to provide a dedicated service where they can rely on the purity and composition of the products that they require from us for their industry. What is important to remember is that our strategy is customer focused and market driven.

“We have a very strong global R&D presence and we also have the power to develop unique process solutions and products. In fact we see legislation as a friend rather than an enemy, as we are very well placed to encompass it in any of our diverse recycling operations.”

R&D at Kuusakoski is proactive and the company is currently building a state-of-the-art research centre in Finland and continuing to develop its close working relationships with the leading universities in Finland and elsewhere.

For further information about the products and services of Kuusakoski Oy visit: www.kuusakoski.com n