July/August 2004
He may dislike being called an “expert,” but Ron Rosenson has earned that title in his 52 years in the precious and specialty metal scrap business.
By Si Wakesberg
Ron Rosenson’s walk speaks volumes about him. He doesn’t have the retiring stroll of many 74-year-olds. No, he walks briskly, like a man determined to stay a step ahead of the competition, which he has indeed done throughout his 52 years in the metals business.
Today, while many of his peers are firmly ensconced in retirement, Rosenson prefers to continue working full time, currently as a director of the Chicago-based Sipi Metals Corp. Here, we catch up with this fast-moving executive (for a moment) to review his career and learn how he became an authority on precious and specialty metals.
Out of the Lab, Into the Scrap Ron Rosenson’s name is almost synonymous with Chicago, which makes sense given that he has lived in and around the Windy City his entire life.
Rosenson was born in 1930 in Chicago and spent his first 33 years there before moving to the nearby town of Rockford, Ill., where he continues to live. Rosenson even attended college in Chicago, earning a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from Roosevelt University. Why chemistry? “I was good in math and thought I had a scientific mind,” he says. “Plus, my elders, who had trouble finding work during the Depression, would always tell me, ‘Having a profession will help you find work, even during tough times.’”
Never one to waste time, Rosenson certainly didn’t wait to start his career after college. He graduated from Roosevelt University on a Sunday in 1952 and started work that Monday. His first position was working as an analytical chemist in the lab of Specialloy Inc., a Chicago-based producer of master alloys such as nickel-copper, nickel-chrome, and similar metals. It was there that Rosenson first learned about scrap, helping Specialloy use the raw material to make its various alloys.
Rosenson’s career—as well as his pursuit of a master’s degree in chemistry—was interrupted in 1953 when he was drafted into the U.S. Army. He took basic infantry training as well as engineering basic training and electrician’s school at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, then was shipped out to Europe in January 1954. There, his military education continued when he was sent to surveyor’s school in the Alps. After all of this training, he finally settled at the Army base in Baumholder, Germany, near the French border.
Military service had its pros and cons for Rosenson. The “unhappy part,” as he puts it, was being separated from his wife, Arlene, whom he had wed a short time before being drafted. Still, his time in the Army was a “maturing situation,” he says, adding that “everything has a beneficial effect as far as I’m concerned. Even some bad times you learn from, you know? So I don’t look at anything as negative.”
In the end, Rosenson was discharged three months early in 1955 so he could return to work as well as his master’s program. He returned to Specialloy for six months but decided he wanted to “get out of the lab” and interact with customers. “I had already been exposed to scrap, so it was a natural for me to go into scrap,” he recounts. “That’s how I got involved in the scrap business.”
With this new career focus, Rosenson took his first scrap-buying position with Suppo Smelting & Refining Co. (Chicago) in 1956, purchasing mostly nickel alloys and stainless steel scrap. The next year he saw a better job opportunity at United Refining & Smelting Co.—a Franklin Park, Ill.-based cadmium and bismuth alloy smelter and refiner—so he switched to that company and established a nickel alloy division for the firm.
A short time later, the nickel alloy market became depressed, prompting United to shift its focus to precious metal refining. As Rosenson notes, “There was a lot less competition in precious metals at that time.”
For the next six years, Rosenson developed his knowledge of precious metal scrap at United. In 1962, though, he once again saw a better job opportunity elsewhere, so he left United to join Joseph Behr & Sons Inc. in Rockford, Ill. There, Rosenson founded a division for the company that smelted and refined precious metal scrap as well as cadmium, bismuth alloys, and solders.
Rosenson ended up spending the bulk of his career—35 years—with Behr in a mutually rewarding relationship. As he recounts, “I was producing for Behr very reasonable profits year in and year out. It was a very gratifying experience.” Along the way, Rosenson learned the value of hedging, which he calls “one of the most vital tools in the metals industry.” In his view, “anyone handling precious and specialty metals must know how to hedge properly.”
Rosenson’s long run with Behr ended in 1997 when he accepted a position with Sipi Metals Corp., a refiner of precious metal scrap and manufacturer of brass and bronze alloys as well as master alloys. Currently, he serves as a director of the firm.
Climbing the Association Ranks
As Rosenson’s career progressed, his stature in the precious metal scrap industry grew to the point where he became a recognized expert in the field. As a result, he was called on to speak about that niche at scores of industry seminars, roundtables, and commodity spotlights (many of which he helped organize and host). He also represented the industry in other capacities, including interacting with local, state, and federal government officials and agencies. In the early 1970s, for instance, the U.S. EPA invited him to speak at its fact-finding hearings on recycling. In addition, he worked with an Illinois state congressman to prevent legislation on stolen scrap from being too broadly restrictive.
Not surprisingly, Rosenson also became a leader in industry associations such as the National Association of Recycling Industries (NARI) and ISRI. Rosenson still recalls his first association convention—the 1959 annual gathering of the National Association of Waste Material Dealers (a NARI predecessor) at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. It didn’t take him long to get involved in various leadership positions in the association. In addition to serving as chairman of the nonferrous and precious metals committees for NARI and ISRI, Rosenson chaired NARI’s membership committee, served on NARI’s executive committee, led NARI’s metals technical liaison group, and was a NARI national vice president. “I went through a lot of chairs,” he says, adding, “I became a spokesman for the precious metal recycling business through my involvement with NARI and ISRI.”
Reflecting on his extensive association involvement, Rosenson points out that “what was so important was the networking with potential suppliers. I got to meet a lot of people, and I have some tremendous relationships that continue today because of my involvement in the trade associations. I still keep in touch with those people, and many are still my suppliers.”
Though he no longer serves on any association committees, Rosenson still attends and speaks at industry events and remains a staunch advocate of the association. “ISRI is vital to the industry,” he asserts. “In it, one can develop a bond with one’s contemporaries that’s important in doing business. The association also represents us in Washington, speaks up for us, and works for our best interests.”
Changing Times
When Rosenson looks back on the various metals in his career, he can’t help but notice the significant changes in their respective markets.
Bismuth alloys, for instance, have become “obsolete,” he says, in part due to the advance of substitute materials like plastics. “There’s been a decline in the usage of low-melting eutectic metals, to which bismuth belongs,” he points out. Another end-use market for bismuth—as an ingredient in Pepto-Bismol—has diminished due to newer products that have replaced Pepto-Bismol. What’s more, the aircraft industry—once the largest consumer of bismuth alloys for the rebuilding of jet engines—consumes much less of those alloys today. “They used to rebuild their engines every 5,000 hours,” Rosenson explains, “but technology has improved so that now they rebuild engines every 20,000 hours. As a result, much less bismuth alloys are needed.” Not surprisingly, the price of bismuth has fallen over the years from $5 a pound to about $2 a pound, he notes. More recently, commodity funds have been buying the metal, boosting its price to $3.50 a pound.
Cadmium, meanwhile, has seen its value plummet from $5 a pound to about 15 cents a pound, primarily due to environmental concerns regarding the metal, Rosenson says. More recently, cadmium has rebounded somewhat to about 50 cents a pound.
As for precious metal scrap, Rosenson notes how the industry was a “growth business” when he entered it in the mid-1950s. How times have changed. When precious metal prices went through the roof in the late 1970s and early 1980s, manufacturers that used precious metals “started looking for substitutes and reducing the amount of precious metals per component,” Rosenson says. In plating applications, for instance, manufacturers started plating smaller areas instead of the entire surface of an item. “Miniaturization in electronics has also resulted in lower use and less demand for precious metals,” he adds. These changes have led to lower precious metal prices and scrap materials with such little intrinsic metal value that they don’t warrant refining.
This trend has certainly been notable in the computer sector. Rosenson recalls how enthusiastic the refining industry was when the first computer circuitboards entered the scrap stream. That’s because those early circuitboards contained respectable amounts of precious metals. As the metal content decreased, recyclers turned to recovering the chips in old computers and selling them to Third World countries. Soon those countries began producing their own chips, and the recovery of chips in the United States became “almost worthless,” Rosenson says.
Declining metal prices, lower metal intensity, environmental restrictions, and the steady shift of electronics manufacturing to Mexico and Asia—all of these factors have combined to eliminate many U.S. smelters and refiners, Rosenson notes.
Currently, the majority of scrap material has to be refined in Europe, Asia, or South Africa. “Low-grade scrap is being outsourced to where labor costs are lower,” he explains. Going forward, the scrap supply outlook is “bleak,” he states candidly, offering the example that there’s less silver being used in photographic film. “While government scrap still remains a source of supply,” he says, “we’re constantly knocking on doors to get additional supplies.”
Keeping Stimulated and Occupied
Despite the major shifts in the precious metal scrap market, Ron Rosenson keeps at it and, in fact, seems to thrive on the challenges. At 74, he has the energy level and fit appearance of a much younger man. Part of his secret is that he works out—in part because he had several surgeries due to a car accident in the 1960s and must work out to keep flexible. He also works out—and plays golf—to stay in shape and because he’s simply “an active individual,” he states. “I need the activity.”
That helps explain why he’s still working full time when he could be fully retired. “Retirement is not something that really interests me,” Rosenson says. He prefers to keep working because, he says, “I enjoy it so much. I don’t want to vegetate. I want to keep in touch with all of my friends around the country, and this is a good way to do it.”
Though he works full time, at least he doesn’t have to commute to a central office anymore. Instead, Rosenson maintains offices in both of his residences—in Rockford, Ill., and Scottsdale, Ariz., where he spends the winter months.
No matter where he is, you can bet you’ll find Rosenson on the go, moving briskly ahead, just like his determined walk. “Like they say with the young boys, ‘Keep ’em busy,’” he remarks. “I’m not going to get in any trouble, but I need to keep stimulated and occupied.”
Si Wakesberg is New York bureau chief for Scrap.
He may dislike being called an “expert,” but Ron Rosenson has earned that title in his 52 years in the precious and specialty metal scrap business.