January/February 1990
That was the general prediction for the 1990s offered by BIR in Munich. Also ahead: increased need for recycling visibility and new solutions for shredder fluff.
More than 900 scrap processors and recyclers from 30 countries gathered in Munich, October 23-25, for the fall convention of the Bureau International de la Recuperation (BIR).
BIR President Jake J. Farber, Alpert & Alpert Iron & Metal, Inc., Los Angeles, emphasized the importance of distinguishing scrap materials from waste in his address to the general assembly. "Recyclable materials, which ill-informed politicians and legislators insist on confusing with waste, are vital products that have economic and ecological value," he said, adding, "a well-thought-out worldwide policy should give our industry and its raw materials the power to transform the environment."
Farber noted that too many local, national, and international authorities that mean well, but are not up-to-date on the economic and technical realities of the scrap recycling industry, make serious decisions affecting the industry without first consulting scrap recycling professionals.
These thoughts were echoed at the Environment Committee meeting chaired by Michael C.E. Lion, Philipp and Lion, Limited, London, who emphasized that recyclers are not in the waste business even though government entities continually include recyclables in broad definitions of waste. "Politicians and government," he said, "pay lip service from time to time to the efforts of our industry as recyclers, while in practice they frequently undermine and destroy our efforts with their legislation and lack of consultation or willingness to react to our point of view."
According to Lion, BIR needs to increase recycling's visibility. "We need to achieve a greater understanding and recognition [by the public] of the role and contribution we play, and of the need to always consult us in matters that affect our industry," he said.
One of the committee's objectives is to create a universally accepted definition of recyclable materials that does not include the term waste. It was the consensus of the committee that that term should not be associated with any commodity that may be recycled.
Ferrous Remains Steady; Disposal Plagues Shredders
Ferrous Division President Anthony P. Bird, Bird Group of Companies, Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom, noting the dangers of forecasting, nevertheless said worldwide demand for ferrous scrap should be fair during the near term. "I do not see any dramatic changes ahead in our markets before we meet in Singapore in the spring," he added. Bird based his outlook on a series of factors: steelworks' order books are good in some regions and fair to moderate in others; European market prices are a little subdued, but scrap still is moving well; the deep-sea market still is moving material, with good conditions in Asia; Korea is buying well and South America is showing signs of improvement; Taiwanese markets are fair; India still needs scrap because its Russian deliveries are very late due to currency problems; and Turkey is providing an active market.
Bird said the shredder industry is taking the brunt of environmental pressures, especially in the United States, and many operators throughout the world are paying the financial penalties imposed by tighter legislation and higher disposal costs. However, he explained, "the industry is continuously looking at possible solutions for the disposal or utilization of shredder waste and I am sure that within the next two years it will have made its breakthrough in this area."
Within six to seven years, Bird said, automobiles are expected to contain up to 440 pounds of plastics. In an effort to discuss that usage, the BIR Ferrous Division recently cosponsored a seminar on the topic with the British Department of Trade and Industry, the British plastic industry, and the motor manufacturing industry. Recognizing the problems shredder operators face in residue disposal, the motor car industry is offering a degree of cooperation, Bird said, that "we have not experienced before, and is studying ways in which it can help the industry with its plastics problem."
Reporting on the U.S. ferrous industry, Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) Foreign Trade Committee Edward Hollander, Clarendon Ltd., Glenview, Illinois, said that "even at lower prices, the demand for ferrous scrap from the United States for export should remain at high levels, but probably not at the same levels as we experienced in 1988 and the first half of 1989."
Nickel/Stainless/Special Alloys Looking for Stability
Stainless Steel and Special Alloys Committee Chairman Barry Hunter, Samuel G. Keywell Co., Port Elizabeth, New Jersey, and chairman of ReMA's Public Relations Committee, lamented that "daily business is slow and negotiations for new business drag on, as consumers watch the LME's [London Metal Exchange] downward trend, assuming time is on their side.
"If stability [in the LME nickel price] could be achieved for a prolonged period of time, I would look forward to good business," he said. "With worldwide major interest in the environment and its related industrial fields, the need for stainless steel finished products should be with us for quite some time. This need will equate to demand for our products, complementing ferro-alloys in both price and quality."
Speaking on the future of high-temperature alloys, Ron Donn, United Alloys, Inc., Los Angeles, told the committee he sees a "continued downward movement, with nickel prices closing out in 1991 within the $3.50-$3.75 range. … I'm afraid that the strength of aerospace industry business will not be enough to offset a slowdown emanating from the stainless steel sector. However," he said, "the use of high nickel-alloys in the pollution control industry will provide us with an ever-growing market."
Donn said that titanium seems to be "shining a little brighter than the other metals. ... The demand curve for titanium mill products will remain flat, but that's not bad news since present levels of consumption and production are by no means weak." He believes demand for ingot-quality scrap should pick up significantly in the first quarter of 1990, while titanium sponge prices are predicted to increase 4 to 5 percent over late-1989 prices. The outlook for cobalt alloys, he added, seems quite good.
Nonferrous: More Volatile Trading Ahead
Nonferrous Metals Division President Michael C.E. Lion predicted that nonferrous scrap recyclers Probably will see "more volatile and difficult trading conditions than have been the case over the last couple of years, where undoubtedly we have been able to enjoy comparatively good opportunities." He said "market conditions will be very sensitive to production interruptions and consumer trends. ... I feel bound to note that the likelihood of some weakening in general demand or business levels is a real -possibility."
Paper Stock Feels Effects of Politics
Paper Division President Jean-Pierre Lehoux, Soulier, La Plaine St. Denis, France, reported that while "demand for waste paper is reaching record quantities, it currently appears that waste paper collection has increased more than demand. ... Although collection in the past was based on demand," he explained, "for a fairly long time waste paper collection in some countries such as the United States, Canada, and the Federal Republic of Germany has become a political instrument for forcing a reduction in the quantities of waste. Collection costs are either totally or partially financed through refuse taxes." Europe will be seeing the effects of this imbalance, he predicted, as increasing quantities of North American waste paper are expected to be exported to Europe and other places.
"In order to maintain the high volume of waste paper collection in Western Europe in spite of waste paper prices which are once again low," Lehoux said, "it is necessary that all waste paper producers once again participate in collection costs just as they did in 1986 and 1987."
Presenting the paper stock report for the United States, Nini Krever, Traders International Corp., North Palm Beach, Florida, and cochair of the ReMA Paper Stock Institute's Arrangements Committee, noted that "news grades have been priced out of the market as a result of government intervention." In addition, she said, new capacity for news will not be on stream for another two to three years and collection of this grade will continue to outmatch sales for some time. Another issue facing the U.S. paper stock industry, she said, is mandatory waste paper separation and collection at the state and local levels, which was done in almost every instance with little or no prior communication with paper stock industry representatives. She noted, however, that "whereas government intervention has caused confusion and excess in certain sectors of the market, we enter the 1990s with the prospect of government positively affecting our industry by mandating increased recycled-fiber content in paper and paperboard."•
BIR Dues Increasing
At the general assembly it was decided that national BIR dues for 1990 will increase 25 percent. Dues for individual supporting firms will increase 50 percent.
--James E. Fowler
That was the general prediction for the 1990s offered by BIR in Munich. Also ahead: increased need for recycling visibility and new solutions for shredder fluff.