Scrap Beat: September/October 2008

September/October 2008

UBC Recycling Rate Rises in 2007, Groups Report
The U.S. aluminum can recycling rate increased 2.2 percentage points in 2007, to 53.8 percent, marking the largest year-on-year gain in 10 years, according to the Aluminum Association (Arlington, Va.), Can Manufacturers Institute (Washington, D.C.), and ISRI (Washington, D.C.). That rate, which makes the aluminum can the most recycled beverage container in the United States, equates to recycling almost 54 billion aluminum cans, or roughly 1.6 billion pounds of aluminum, the groups report.

The aluminum can is 100-percent recyclable into new beverage cans indefinitely. The standard can, which holds 12 ounces of liquid, weighs less than half an ounce. Slightly more than 34 empty cans constitute one pound of aluminum, the associations note.

Visit www.aluminum.org, www.cancentral.com, or www.isri.org.

2005 AQSIQ Licenses Up for Renewal
Companies that received licenses from China's General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine (AQSIQ) in 2005 must submit their license renewal paperwork by the end of September. In the renewal process, companies must complete the same application they used for the original license, but this time they should check Box 2 for registration renewal. Companies that wish to file a change of address during the renewal process also must check the "changes in registration" box.

The renewal process requires companies to submit many of the same supporting documents they submitted with their original applications. Applicants must submit their renewal applications by Sept. 30, 2008, or they will automatically lose their eligibility for registration when their registration certificates expire at year end.

ReMA provides an English-language version of the AQSIQ renewal document—Notice No. 87 (2007)—on its Web site, though applicants should have the completed application translated into Chinese by someone who can convey the context of scrap industry terminology. ReMA advises companies to file the application in both Chinese and English to avoid problems if they need to refer back to the application at a later date. Copies of previous AQSIQ licensing documents—such as Notice 115 (2003), Notice 48 (2004), and Notice 103 (2005)—and other relevant documents are on a members-only section of the ReMA Web site at www.isri.org/trade/register/china.

Mercury Switch Program Increases Recovery Incentive
Auto dismantlers and scrap recyclers who participate in the National Vehicle Mercury Switch Recovery Program now can receive more money for recovering mercury-containing switches from end-of-life vehicles. The NVMSRP, a national program launched in late 2006 by the U.S. EPA and multiple stakeholders, has raised the incentive payment from $1 to $4 for each mercury switch removed from an ELV and sent to End of Life Vehicle Solutions, a switch-collection company the automotive industry founded as part of the program. In addition, ELVS now will pay $6 for each mercury switch-containing brake assembly that's recovered. The increase covers switches returned on and after Aug. 1, 2008.

According to ISRI, 164 shredder operators participate in the NVMSRP program. Other shredders who wish to enroll can go to www.elvssolutions.org, click on the "Contact Us" tab, and follow the instructions.

Contact Mark Reiter at 202/662-8517 or markreiter@isri.org or Danielle Waterfield at 202/662-8516 or daniellewaterfield@isri.org.

AAR Tightens Open-Top Railcar Rules
The Association of American Railroads (Washington, D.C.), through its open-top loading rules committee, has voted to impose new restrictions on all shippers who use open-top railcars. Specifically, AAR is amending its Part 87, Section 2 rules to prohibit the loading of loose commodities, including scrap, in mounds above the top chord of any open-top railcar. AAR reports that this change will reduce railcar derailments and the frequency of accidents and injuries.

Based on AAR's calculations, the volume reduction of "leveling off" an 18-inch mounded load of scrap, coal, construction debris, or other loose commodity would require one extra car for every 10 to 12 railcar loads. Though AAR did not invite ReMA to participate in discussions prior to the rule change, ReMA will continue talking with the association to minimize the effect on scrap shipments while not affecting the safety benefits AAR expects from the new requirements. In the interim, an official AAR Circular Letter announcement was expected in late August, with compliance requirements effective 30 days after that announcement.

Contact Tom Herod, 202/662-8519 or tomherod@isri.org.

World Steel Remains on Growth Track
Global crude steel production through July totaled about 815 million mt, 6.1 percent higher than production in the same period in 2007, the International Iron and Steel Institute (Brussels) reports.

Asia had the highest production in the first seven months, roughly 458 million mt, up 8 percent compared with the comparable period in 2007, IISI says. China led all countries in production, with crude output of 308 million mt, a 9.3-percent gain over its previous year's January-July production.

The European Union and North America were the two other top-producing regions, making about 127 million mt (up 0.9 percent) and 81 million mt (up 5.6 percent) of crude steel, respectively, through July, IISI says. Germany led EU steelmakers with 28 million mt of production (down 1.3 percent), and the United States set the trend in North America with about 59 million mt (up 4.8 percent).

Similarly, Russia posted healthy crude steel production of 44 million mt for a gain of 4.8 percent through July, IISI reports.

Visit www.worldsteel.org.

Plastics Recycler Secures Additional Funding
MBA Polymers (Richmond, Calif.) has secured a $40 million funding round co-led by Citigroup's Sustainable Development Investments to further expand the number of facilities it operates. MBA's current investors—including Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures, Balderton Capital, and Asia West—also participated in the new round.

MBA recovers high-value plastics from complex scrap streams, replacing plastic resin from non-renewable resources with high-performance resins made from scrap. In addition to its Richmond headquarters's pilot-scale plant, the company has full-scale processing facilities in Nansha, China, and Kematen, Austria, as well as a joint venture to construct another plant in Europe.

Visit www.mbapolymers.com.

Recycler Announces Scrap Art Winners
American Iron (Minneapolis) has announced the winners of its eighth annual Art of Recycling metal sculpture competition, which the company sponsors to support the local arts and promote recycling awareness. Contestants have one hour to select scrap metal for their artworks from the company's main yard and six weeks to create their pieces. Participants entered 26 sculptures this year, the largest of which weighed 300 pounds and stood 7 feet tall. Artists received cash prizes in two categories.

Large/Floor: First Place, Dirk DuBois, Red Bull; Second Place, Jeff Lohaus, Chicken Hawk Redux; and Third Place, Justin Peters, A Man and His Boat.

Small/Tabletop: First Place, Holly Murray, Armadillo; Second Place, Rabi Sanfo, Armageddon "The Last Stand?"; and Third Place, John Hartigan, Child of God.

Visit www.scrappy.com.

Novelis Raises the Bar on UBC Suppliers
Novelis North America (Cleveland) has introduced a new supplier rating system and scorecard to provide uniform standards for quality assurance in the aluminum used beverage cans it purchases. The company assesses UBC quality based on four criteria: the financial impact of contaminants, alloy chemistry, productivity, and safety. The new scorecard measures suppliers based on contaminants, moisture content, charge-backs, rejects, and quality alerts per UBC load. The company will then rate suppliers monthly, based on all of their scorecards, as qualified, marginal, or unacceptable. To encourage improvement, Novelis will pay unacceptable suppliers less for their UBCs.

Visit www.novelis.com.

RBRC Expands Battery Recycling Program
The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corp. (Atlanta) has expanded its collection program for the first time in seven years to include new battery technology. RBRC, which specializes in recycling rechargeable batteries and cell phones, now recycles nickel-zinc batteries, the fifth rechargeable battery chemistry it accepts, along with nickel cadmium, nickel metal-hydride, lithium ion, and small sealed lead batteries.

RBRC has collected more than 42 million pounds of rechargeable batteries since its founding in 1996. Members fund the collection and recycling of the batteries.

Visit www.rbrc.org.

Mergers and Acquisitions

• The auto parts business of Schnitzer Steel Industries (Portland, Ore.) has acquired self-service used auto parts businesses U-Pull-It Auto Parts (Little Rock, Ark.), U-Pull-It Jacksonville (Jacksonville, Ark.), and Roosevelt U-Pull-It (San Antonio), giving it 38 self-service auto dismantling operations.

  Visit www.schnitzersteel.com.

• Nucor Corp. subsidiary The David J. Joseph Co. (Cincinnati) is acquiring the assets of American Compressed Steel's operations in Kansas City, Mo. American Compressed Steel, which also has facilities in St. Joseph and Sedalia, Mo., processes nearly 180,000 tons of ferrous annually. DJJ also has purchased Victoria Recycling (Victoria, Texas), which processes more than 24,000 tons a year.

  Visit www.djj.com.

• Sims Group UK (Stratford Upon Avon, England) has acquired Evans and Mondon (Halesowen, England) as part of its strategy to expand its geographical coverage in the Midlands region of the United Kingdom. The acquisition of Evans and Mondon, which primarily handles ferrous and processes more than 30,000 mt a year, gives Sims 100,000 mt of annual processing capacity in the Midlands region.

  Visit www.sims-group.com/uk.

• Steel Dynamics (Fort Wayne, Ind.) has acquired seven processing operations from Sturgis Iron & Metal Co. (Sturgis, Mich.) for $42 million. The operations—located in Sturgis, Kalamazoo, and Monroe, Mich.; South Bend and Peru, Ind.; and Fitzgerald, Ga.—closed when Sturgis Iron & Metal filed for bankruptcy in April. SDI expects the facilities to reopen in the third quarter under the management of OmniSource Corp. (Fort Wayne, Ind.), which SDI acquired late last year.

  Visit www.steeldynamics.com.

• Consolidated Scrap Resources (York, Pa.) has purchased the recycling business assets of Brandywine Recyclers (Lebanon, Pa.), which it will rename CSR-Brandywine. Brandywine's 12-acre recycling facility, which collects and processes ferrous, nonferrous, paper, and plastic scrap, is 35 miles east of CSR's Harrisburg, Pa., shredding plant. In addition to that plant, CSR currently operates three recycling facilities in York and one in Gettysburg.

  Visit www.consolidatedscrap.com.

• ELG Haniel (Duisburg, Germany) has purchased Utica Alloys (Utica, N.Y.) to combine its existing superalloy and titanium market activities with Utica's logistics and processing services to the global aerospace, power generation, and chemical industries. Utica founder Joseph Jiampietro will remain with the company as its managing director. In addition to its headquarters in Utica, Utica Alloys has operations and offices in Rome, N.Y.; Tempe, Ariz.; Xian, China; Greenville, S.C.; and Glasgow, Scotland.

  Visit www.elg.de or www.uticaalloys.com.

• Joseph Smith & Sons (Capitol Heights, Md.) has purchased construction and demolition debris processor Recovermat Mid-Atlantic (Baltimore), aiming to convert the company's 9-acre facility into a scrapyard with a 120-inch megashredder. Recovermat, which has about 20 employees, already operates a 98-inch shredder for processing concrete and construction scrap.

  Smith also plans to erect a bulk cargo export-import terminal at the Port of Baltimore, about 6 miles from the Recovermat yard. The company, which currently operates a small ferrous export facility in Wilmington, Del., is seeking permits to handle scrap metals and other materials at the 27-acre Baltimore site, which would have both deep-water and rail access. Once operational, the site would be the first to export bulk cargoes of ferrous scrap from Baltimore in more than five years.

  Visit www.smithindustries.us.

• Cronimet Mining (Karlsruhe, Germany) and investors from Dubai have acquired 70.5 percent of the shares of GMR Ferro Alloys and Industries (Tekkali Mandal, India) from GMR Group (Bangalore, India). The acquired firm, which will operate as Cronimet Ferro Alloys (India), has two melting furnaces and produces about 27,500 mt of ferrochromium annually, 75 percent of which it exports to Europe, China, Japan, and Korea.

  Visit www.cronimet.com.

• Bosch Rexroth (Lohr, Germany) has purchased Hägglunds Drives (Mellansel, Sweden) to expand its industrial hydraulics portfolio and strengthen its position in growing markets, the company says. Hägglunds develops, manufactures, and markets hydraulic motors and drive systems for high-torque, low-speed and variable speed applications. The company, which has about 900 employees, has 16 subsidiaries, about 50 sales and service offices, and production facilities in Mellansel, Sweden; San Antonio; and Columbus, Ohio. In 2007, Hägglunds posted sales of about $300 million.

  Visit www.boschrexroth.com.

• Hypertherm (Hanover, N.H.), a manufacturer of plasma arc-cutting technology, has acquired laser consumables manufacturer and supplier ESSE A (Milan, Italy), expanding its product offerings to its global channel partners. ESSE A, which has about 20 employees, will remain in Italy, where all of its manufacturing facilities are located. Hypertherm does not expect any significant changes in its operations.

  Visit www.hypertherm.com.

Equipment Sales and Installations

• Sims Metal Australia (North Sydney, Australia) has purchased a 100 SXS shredding system from The Shredder Co. (Canutillo, Texas) for its Brisbane, Australia, scrap processing facility. The new shredder will include The Shredder Co.'s Smart Shredding System automation system, Smart Water System, Super Double-Feed Roll Squared system, special alloy steel rotor, and castings featuring the firm's latest design. The shredder, which replaces an older system on the site, is scheduled for delivery in March 2009.

• OneSteel Recycling (Tampa, Fla.) has installed a 6,000-hp shredder from Metso Texas Shredder (San Antonio) at its recently expanded processing facility in the Port Sutton region of the Port of Tampa. The shredder, which has a 98-inch-diameter hammer swing, is expected to process about 150,000 mt in its first year and will create an estimated 30 jobs.

  Visit www.onesteel.com.

• Cimco Recycling (Sterling, Ill.) and Columbus Metals Industries (Columbus, Neb.) have both installed Clear-View infrared shredder camera systems from The U.S. Shredder and Castings Group (Trussville, Ala.).

  U.S. Shredder also recently finished the second phase of a shredder system upgrade at Shredded Products (Rocky Mount, Va.). In the project's first phase, the company installed a standalone nonferrous system. In the second phase, the firm installed a WEG 4,000-hp motor, its shredder control and management system, water injection system, new housing control with operator station, and new ferrous downstream.

  Visit www.usshredder.com.

• Brookfield Resource Management has installed the SEDA-Easy Drain automotive draining system from SEDA Environmental (St. Petersburg, Fla.) at its Elmsford, N.Y., recycling facility. The SEDA system uses compressed air to remove virtually all fluids in a safe and efficient manner, the manufacturer says.

  Visit www.brookfieldco.com.

• Crow Environmental (Suffolk, England) has installed 40 vehicle de-pollution systems at several European Metal Recycling (Warrington, England) locations in the United Kingdom and the United States.

  Visit www.crowenvironmental.co.uk.

• MetalTek International's Wisconsin centrifugal division (Waukesha, Wis.) has purchased a Meltshop Optimization System from the metals and advanced manufacturing division of Management Science Associates (Pittsburgh). The system includes heat charge optimization models for MetalTek's bronze and stainless steel meltshop facilities, an alloy addition model, material consumption recording, heat disposition, and reporting. The models used in these applications determine the most cost-effective mix of raw materials to meet the identified chemical, schedule, and residual constraints. The use of these models will yield significant savings for MetalTek in its raw material input costs, MSA says.

Openings and Closings

• Newell Recycling (East Point, Ga.) plans to open a state-of-the-art scrap processing plant on a 40-acre site in Garden City, Ga., in December. The new operation, Newell Recycling of Savannah, will initially have 75 employees, with plans to grow to about 100 employees when the plant is fully operational in early 2009. The Savannah plant, which will feature a 6,000-hp megashredder, will be the company's third shredding facility and 11th location overall. In addition to preserving many specimen trees on the property, the company says it will plant nearly 100 new trees on-site.

  Visit www.newellrecycling.com.

• Blaze Recycling & Metals (Norcross, Ga.) has acquired a site in Albany, Ga., that it will use as a scrap metal buying facility. The company expects operations at this property and another property it recently acquired in Montgomery, Ala., to open in the third quarter of 2008. Both sites will support Blaze's new shredder in Phenix City, Ala., which also will commence operations in the third quarter.

  Visit www.blazerecycling.com.

• Bill Wolok, founder of Benlee (Romulus, Mich.), has started WBW Sales, an independent sales representative firm serving customers' roll-off, push-off, container, and trucking needs. The new company is at 4273 Wabeek Lake Drive, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302. Reach it at 734/740-7722; fax, 248/538-9807; or bill@wbwsales.com.

  Visit www.wbwsales.com.

• Pratt Industries (Conyers, Ga.) has secured $112 million through its Pratt Paper LA subsidiary to develop, construct, and operate a new recycled containerboard plant in Shreveport, La. The mill, which will create an estimated 115 full-time jobs, will use 100-percent recycled fiber to produce about 360,000 tons of containerboard a year.

  Visit www.prattindustries.com.

• Effective July 18, 2008, Caraustar Industries (Austell, Ga.) permanently ceased production of uncoated recycled boxboard at its paperboard mill in Chattanooga, Tenn. The mill employed about 67 salaried and hourly employees and produced roughly 60,000 tons of paperboard. Despite this mill closing, Caraustar will continue to operate its recycling center in Chattanooga.

  Visit www.caraustar.com.

Awards and Milestones

• Alcoa Materials Management (Knoxville, Tenn.) has announced that its top 10 scrap suppliers for 2008 are American Iron & Metal Co. (Montréal, Québec); The David J. Joseph Co. (Cincinnati); Metal Conversions (Mansfield, Ohio); Newco Metals (Pendleton, Ind.); OmniSource Corp. (Fort Wayne, Ind.); Service Aluminum Corp. (Ellicott City, Md.); Shapiro Sales (St. Louis); Smelter Service Corp. (Mount Pleasant, Tenn.); State Metal Industries (Camden, N.J.); and Weiner Iron and Metal (Pottsville, Pa.).

  The company also selected Schupan & Sons (Kalamazoo, Mich.) as its most improved supplier and Copper Consultants (Glendale, Ariz.) as its strategic copper supplier.

  Alcoa's criteria for selecting its top scrap suppliers include volume, scrap value/savings to Alcoa, quality, proximity to Alcoa plants, dealer growth and product improvement, the number of Alcoa plants supplied, timely delivery, the supplier's safety programs, environmental compliance, and ISO 9000 certification.

  Visit www.alcoa.com.

• Milestone Metals (Fairfax, Va.) ranked 38th in the 2008 Inc. 5000 list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the United States. The company's revenue increased 3,500 percent from 2004 to 2007, according to Ramprasad Gurunathan, Milestone's president. Founded in 2002, Milestone Metals is a global trading firm that exports ferrous and nonferrous scrap to countries such as India, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates. Among its other distinctions, the firm is ranked third on Inc.'s list of the top 100 business services companies and fourth among the top 100 businesses in the Washington, D.C., metro area.

  Visit www.milestonemetals.com.

• ECORE International (Lancaster, Pa.) has received the Orion Energy Systems Environmental Stewardship Award for lighting changes at its York and Lancaster, Pa., facilities. The company replaced its conventional fluorescent and metal halide lighting with Orion's energy-efficient, high-intensity fluorescent lighting. The project reduces the company's power consumption by almost 3.7 million kilowatt-hours a year and cuts its electricity costs 58 percent.

  Visit www.ecoreintl.com.

• The Great Place to Work Institute (San Francisco) selected Cascade Asset Management (Madison, Wis.) to receive the Society for Human Resource Management's "Best Small & Medium Companies to Work for in America" award. The award recognizes Cascade as one of the nation's top 25 small- and 25 medium-sized employers.

  Visit www.cascade-assets.com.

• Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, Mass.) has received the R&D 100 Award for technical innovation from R&D Magazine. The award recognizes the company's hand-held Niton XL3t XRF analyzer as one of the top 100 technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year. This marks the third R&D 100 Award for Niton's products, with the previous awards received in 1995 and 2003.

  Visit www.thermofisher.com.

• Intechra (Jackson, Miss.) earned one of the first five Green Recycling and Asset Disposal for the Enterprise certifications from technology analyst IDC. The IDC GRADE certification process, which is based on 34 IT asset disposal-related functions, uses a multidimensional weighing system that considers remote applications, on-site services, logistics, in-plant processing, and post-treatment. IDC has reviewed 25 providers to date, looking at each candidate's strategy, policies, operations, and results.

  Visit www.intechra.com.

• The Pulp & Paper Safety Association (Perry, Fla.) honored 30 facilities of Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. (Chicago) at its annual safety and health conference. Five Smurfit-Stone facilities received top honors: The Hodge, La., and Williamsport, Pa., container plants earned the association's Award of Safety Excellence by achieving the best safety records in their categories for three consecutive years. The Hodge mill recently became the first mill in the company's history to work more than 3 million hours without a recordable injury.

  The company's Oakland, Calif., recycling plant and Homerville, Ga., sawmill received Best One-Year Safety Record awards for having the lowest incident rate in their categories. Both facilities completed the 2007 work year without a single OSHA recordable incident.

  Smurfit's St. Louis recycling facility received PPSA's Most Improved Award for showing the greatest improvement in its category over the previous three years. This facility also had no reportable incidents or injuries in 2007.

  Visit www.smurfit-stone.com.

• Czech manufacturer ZDAS has produced its 100th container scrap shear. The company, which has developed and manufactured scrap processing machines for more than 40 years, has produced more than 220 shears in a variety of models and dimensions and with shearing forces ranging from 100 to 2,000 tons.

  Visit www.zdas.cz.

New Partnerships and Agreements

• The recycling division of Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. (Chicago) has partnered with Advanced Disposal Services (Jacksonville, Fla.) to operate Advanced's Jacksonville recycling facility. The partnership will complement Smurfit-Stone's existing recycling facility in Jacksonville and enable both companies to better serve customers in the region.

  Visit www.smurfit-stone.com.

• American Ecology Corp. (Boise, Idaho) and Amlon Resources Group (New York) have signed a spent catalyst teaming agreement to process and market metal-bearing oil-refinery catalyst to produce metals-based chemicals and alloys. This arrangement gives petrochemical companies a full-service option for managing their classified hazardous waste spent catalyst, the companies say.

  Visit www.americanecology.com or www.amlonresources.com.

• Harsco Corp.'s (Camp Hill, Pa.) mill services division has received a new 10-year contract to provide on-site environmental services to ArcelorMittal's Dunkirk steel works in northern France. Under the contract, valued at more than $60 million, Harsco will construct a new dehydrating plant to process the mill's blast-furnace and melt-shop sludge byproducts into reusable filter cake material the company can use in the steelmaking process and other applications. Harsco also will screen and blend various byproduct materials for on-site recycling to the mill's sinter plant, which produces materials for charging the mill's three blast furnaces. Work under the new contract will commence in early 2009.

  Visit www.harsco.com.

Electronics Recycling Roundup

• Computer manufacturer Lenovo (Morrisville, N.C.) has introduced Lenovo Asset Recovery Services, which provides computer take-back, data destruction, refurbishment, and recycling services for its business customers in the United States and Canada to help them manage their end-of-life electronics. The company also offers such services as inventory, value assessment, on-site deinstallation, and data encryption. The new program can facilitate the donation or sale of customers' old IT assets. Pricing will vary based on customer requirements, the company says.

  Visit www.lenovo.com.

• Beginning April 1, 2009, Ontario will fully fund electronics recycling activities in the province. Manufacturers, brand owners, and importers will subsidize the electronic scrap diversion program, which includes free public drop-off locations at charities, municipal depots, and recycling companies. The cost to the industry will amount to roughly $13 per desktop computer and $9 per television. The province will increase its current 167 drop-off locations to 420 in the first year and more than 650 by the program's fifth year. This effort will be Canada's first to set recycling performance targets. Ontario, which currently recycles about 27 percent of its electronics, has set a goal to recycle 61 percent by the program's fifth year. It also plans to manage electronic scrap from businesses.

  Visit www.gov.on.ca.

• ReCellular (Dexter, Mich.) will use additional financing from a recent $15 million investment to double its cell-phone recycling operations. The company is working to collect more than 6 million mobile phones and recycle more than 1.5 million pounds of material in 2008.

  Visit www.recellular.com.

• Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas), chairman of the House subcommittee on the environment and hazardous materials, has introduced a resolution calling for the federal government to ban the export of "toxic electronic waste" to developing countries. Applauding Green's action, the Basel Action Network (Seattle) and the Electronics TakeBack Coalition (San Francisco) predicted that the resolution likely prefaces future legislation.

• Home Depot now offers free compact fluorescent light bulb recycling at its 1,973 locations. Customers can drop off expired, unbroken bulbs at the returns counter of any Home Depot store.

  Visit www.homedepot.com/ecooptions.

Recyclers Move Offices

• Southern Scrap has moved its main office back to New Orleans and, in the process, has returned 20 employees to the city. The new office is at 902 Julia St., New Orleans, LA 70113. The company says it also plans to relocate its 400-employee scrapyard, which currently is along the Industrial Canal in East New Orleans, due to difficulties transporting materials on the canal. Southern Scrap has not yet set a date for the yard's closure as it scouts out locations in the Gulf South region and on the Mississippi River.

  Visit www.southernscrapmetals.com.

• The U.S. Shredder and Castings Group has relocated its main sales office from Nashville, Tenn., to the Birmingham, Ala., area. Contact the firm's new office at P.O. Box 1021, Trussville, AL 35173; 205/999-7670; fax, 866/354-2754; or bill.tigner@usshredder.com. The company also maintains regional sales offices in Charlotte, N.C., and Davenport, Iowa.

  Visit www.usshredder.com.

• Doosan Infracore International has moved into its new global headquarters, a 28,272-square-foot facility at 9335 Harris Corners Parkway, Charlotte, NC 28269.

  Visit www.diicorp.com.

Vendors Select New Distributors

Winkle Industries (Alliance, Ohio) has chosen Harry Fisher & Associates (Fairfield, Ohio) and Mattrip Technical Sales (Feasterville, Pa.) as sales agencies for its lifting devices, mechanical and electrical crane products, ground-mounted material handling equipment, and aftermarket services.

Visit www.winkleindustries.com.

New Holland Construction (Carol Stream, Ill.) has announced three new dealers: Dinkel Implement (Norfolk, Neb.) will offer the full line of New Holland construction equipment, and Western Implement (Montrose, Colo.) and Moore Tractor Co. (Fairfield, Calif.) will represent the company's commercial utility line.

Visit www.newholland.com.

Resources

• Platts (New York) has expanded its daily spot price assessment suite to include seaborne iron ore delivered to China, iron ore's largest consuming market. The new daily price assessment, named Platts IODEX, will provide an independent market-assessed spot price that market participants can use to determine pricing for short- and long-term contracts. The assessments will capture the value in U.S. dollars per dry metric ton of iron ore fines (normalized to 62-percent iron content with standardized impurities) shipped on a cost-and-freight basis to main Chinese ports. The company reports the assessments, which began June 2, in its online and print publication Steel Markets Daily.

  Visit www.platts.com.

• A new ISO international standard, ISO 15270:2008, Plastics—Guidelines for the recovery and recycling of plastics waste, aims to assist plastics industry stakeholders in developing a sustainable global infrastructure and market for plastics recovery and recycling.

  Visit www.iso.org. •

The U.S. aluminum can recycling rate increased 2.2 percentage points in 2007, to 53.8 percent, marking the largest year-on-year gain in 10 years, according to the Aluminum Association (Arlington, Va.), Can Manufacturers Institute (Washington, D.C.), and ISRI (Washington, D.C.).