May/June 1999
The scrap industry rollup that looked unstoppable in 1997 stalled when markets turned south. Here’s what happened to the three most-active consolidators, with a look at the merger trend among scrap consumers and producers.
By Si Wakesberg
Si Wakesberg is New York Bureau Chief for Scrap.
Few events in my life have proved as productive and as satisfying as the first educational seminar conducted by the National Association of Secondary Material Industries (NASMI) at the University of Wisconsin in 1964. It stands out in my memory as a high point of my decades-long association with the scrap industry.
Soon after starting work at NASMI in 1958, I was put in charge of its educational activities, the most important of which was a metals seminar for newcomers to the industry, then held at Michigan State University. As a newcomer to the association myself, I barely recall organizing and attending my first seminar. The event remains a blur, though I was told it went smoothly and that everyone seemed pleased with it.
When the Wisconsin seminar came along in 1964, I had a better grasp of how such educational events should be handled. Sitting in the classroom each day during the week-long seminar, I could see the day-to-day work of students. The students were an interesting mix of young men (and one woman)—some of them sons, sons-in-law, or relatives of owners of scrap plants, others simply ambitious souls who wanted to find a career in the scrap industry.
In my seminar book, the attendance roster lists a distinguished list of students including Robert Fox, Howard “Griff” Martin [see profile on page 109], Richard Neu, Sheldon Derer, Jerry David, Joseph Alpert, Henry “Hank” Schweich, David Serls, Burt Skolnick, and many others. Some of them are no longer in the business, others have retired, while many went on to become leaders in the industry. When I look back and realize that I knew them at the start, I’m still somewhat amazed.
The one woman among the 100 or so male students was Rena Karchmer of A. Karchmer & Son Inc. (Memphis). As I recall, she had assumed management of her family’s company when her husband died. She attended the seminar to learn more about metals, the handling of scrap, the newer technologies, and so on. Later, she sent me a letter in which she expressed her feelings about the seminar and its speakers: “The week spent in an environment among men who are the outstanding leaders of the industry will long be remembered.” She was too tactful to mention how respectfully those male students had treated her.
Two outstanding executives headed up the slate of speakers at the seminar that year: Robert Ruch of Frankel Co. Inc. and Kurt Leburg of Schiavone-Bonomo Corp. Both were personalities to be remembered. Ruch was an early expert in what we called “exotic” metals, while Leburg was an authority on copper scrap and a scholar in the scrap industry.
The seminar’s program listed workshops in aluminum, copper, lead, zinc, precious metals, nickel alloys, and stainless steel scrap. In addition, there were sessions on cost accounting, warehouse management, doing business with the government, pitfalls in scrap trading, foreign trade, business law for metal processors, and sources of metal information. The seminar also offered tours of Asarco’s Federated Metals Division in Whiting, Ind., and a U.S. Reduction Co. plant.
Classes began on Monday morning and ran each day through Friday afternoon. It was a real college curriculum. Our sessions were held in classrooms that overlooked Lake Mendota and gave an entrancing view of the Wisconsin horizon.
Holding the seminar on a college campus added a serious educational undertone to the event and gave it a psychological impact that couldn’t have been achieved by hosting it at a hotel. Lectures on the copper market, the identification of aluminum alloys, the tests for stainless steel scrap, the discussion on trading on Comex and the London Metal Exchange all resonated with more educational emphasis thanks to the college environment.
That year, students lodged in one of the dormitories. Hardly luxurious, but it added to the feeling of being in college. The lecturers were treated to somewhat better quarters at a local motel in Madison. Despite the urgings of Ruch and Leburg, I opted to stay with the students. Though that decision meant I had to share small quarters and eat college food, I didn’t regret my choice. It gave me the chance to get to know many of the students personally and made for a camaraderie and memorable learning experience that continues to stick with me these many years later.
Other students share my sentiments. One—now head of a scrap company—told me at a recent ReMA convention, “I was at the Wisconsin seminar that year, and I’ll never forget it.”
What was surprising—and gratifying—was the lecturers’ own amazement at the caliber of the seminar. John Lennon, then with Ametalco Inc., wrote, “I considered it a privilege to participate in your seminar and very much appreciate having been asked to do so. It was my first such experience and I found it interesting and challenging.” Jacob Viener of Hyman Viener & Sons stated, “It was more than I expected and shall be pleasantly remembered for its excellence in all respects.” And Aubrey Callis of American Smelting & Refining Co. sent a flattering note in which he said, “Who knows, some of the fine young men who participated may be employees of our company someday. Certainly, many of them will be valued customers.”
The 1964 seminar was the first of many NASMI held in Madison. They were held every four years, with attendance generally limited to 100. One year, however, under an agreement with the Institute of Scrap Iron and Steel, we upped the attendance to 200 and included a number of courses on steel scrap in the curriculum. Though it was a large and somewhat unwieldy affair, it was useful from the point of view of association unity.
In the 1970s, our seminar came during a period of college insurrections all over the country. When we met during the summer session, the effects of the campus disturbances the previous school term were obvious in broken windows, trash in the hallways, and graffiti on buildings. Sadly, it was not the University of Wisconsin we had come to know and admire.
I have, in my time, attended hundreds of conferences, meetings, workshops, seminars, and conventions, but that first seminar at the University of Wisconsin stands out like a landmark. It set a standard for the industry, brought an entire younger generation together, and helped build a cadre of high-caliber leaders in the scrap industry. •
The scrap industry rollup that looked unstoppable in 1997 stalled when markets turned south. Here’s what happened to the three most-active consolidators, with a look at the merger trend among scrap consumers and producers.