Aceros Arequipa to add rolling capacity - Recycling Today

2022-09-24 03:29:53 By : Ms. Angela Huto

Peruvian EAF steelmaker announces $75 million investment.

Lima, Peru-based electric arc furnace steelmaker Aceros Arequipa has approved an investment of $75 million for the installation of a new rolling mill at the plant located in Pisco, Peru. The investment will give the plant a capacity of 300,000 metric tons per year of steel to be made into bars and profiles.

The new line, together with the two current lines, will provide Aceros Arequipa with a total production capacity of 1.55 million metric tons of finished product per year, “generating cost efficiencies by optimizing consolidated production,” states the company.

“This new investment reaffirms our purpose in meeting the growing demand of the national and international market, using state-of-the-art technology in all our production processes,” says Aceros Arequipa General Manager Tulio Silgado.

The company says it anticipates the new rolling mill will start up in the second half of 2024.

In July of last year, Aceros Arequipa announced it was buying a shredder yard in Florida as part of a strategy to ensure it has access to ferrous scrap in the United States.

Steelmaker’s CEO says it enters 2022 with a “transformed” balance sheet.

Pittsburgh-based United States Steel Corp. has reported fourth-quarter 2021 net earnings of $1.07 billion, or $3.75 per diluted share. The figure presents a remarkable contrast with the fourth quarter of 2020 when U.S. Steel’s adjusted net loss was $60 million, or minus 27 cents per diluted share.

For the full year of 2021, U.S. Steel says its net earnings checked in at $4.17 billion, or $14.88 per diluted share. That compares to full-year 2020 net loss of $1.16 billion, or minus $5.92 per diluted share.

“2021 was a year of records and we delivered with record earnings and free cash flow and record safety, environmental, quality and reliability performance,” says U. S. Steel President and CEO David B. Burritt. “We enter 2022 from a position of strength and are relentlessly focused on continuing our disciplined approach to creating stockholder value. Our balance sheet has been transformed, record cash significantly de-risks strategy execution and our capital allocation priorities have enhanced direct stockholder returns. We are a fundamentally different company from a year ago and expect 2022 to be another strong year.”

The company continues to make steel at integrated blast furnace/basic oxygen furnace complexes, but it also has been investing heavily in scrap-fed electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking. That has come in the form of its ownership of Big River Steel in Arkansas and the installation of EAF furnaces in Alabama.

Referring to the company’s “Best for All” strategy, Burritt says, “Through our Best for All customer-centric strategy, U. S. Steel continues to gain market share with our clear competitive advantages: low-cost iron ore, minimill steelmaking and best-in-class finishing capabilities.”

Burritt continues, “2022 will be another year of strategic progress and upon completion, our announced strategic investments will deliver approximately $850 million of incremental through-cycle earnings power with winning customer solutions while reducing our capital and carbon intensity. We are becoming a better, not bigger company as we continue to innovate and develop the next generation of our sustainable steel solutions for our people and our planet.”

Regarding current and anticipated capital allocation projects, U.S. Steel says during the fourth quarter of 2021, the company repurchased $150 million of its common stock under the $300 million stock buyback authorization announced in October of last year. In addition, the board of directors has authorized a new $500 million stock repurchase program to start in the first quarter 2022.

The Tipton plant in the U.K. is expected to increase production capacity to 80,000 metric tons by 2027.

London-based Technology Minerals PLF has announced that Recyclus Group Ltd., London, a 49 percent Technology Minerals-owned company, has opened its first lead-acid battery recycling plant in Tipton, England. Operations at the facility will commence next month.

According to a news release from Technology Minerals, the Tipton plant is expected to increase Recyclus’ lead-acid battery recycling production capacity from an estimated 16,000 metric tons in the first full year of production, to about 80,000 metric tons by 2027.

The Tipton plant is designed to process up to 12 metric tons per hour of all types of lead-acid batteries and will have a fully automated, modular system that is capable of recycling lead-acid batteries without any gas or particle emissions going into the atmosphere, according to Technology Minerals.

The process breaks down the entire battery into separate constituent parts and recovers lead, acid and plastic materials. These materials can be recycled to support a wide range of industries. The hard lead can be used in grids and terminals, the soft lead for battery paste, and the sulfuric acid can be turned into fertilizers for agricultural use, electrolytes or gypsum for fiberboard construction.

By mechanizing a previously manual process for lead-acid battery recycling, Recyclus can prioritize the safety and sustainability of recycling processes to ensure that Recyclus is taking a responsible approach to battery recycling, the company says.

“With the opening of the lead-acid plant at Tipton, Recyclus is industrializing and mechanizing a long-established industry that has traditionally been very labor-intensive,” says Robin Brundle, chairman of Technology Minerals. “The efficiencies of the plant, combined with Recyclus’ processes, really modernize the sector and will assist in reducing the number of batteries that are either incinerated or, worse still, sent to landfill.”

Brundle says this is the first of 10 plants Recyclus is expected to open in the next six years. Recyclus plans to open a lithium-ion recycling facility in Wolverhampton, England, next month, and an update on the progress of the lithium plant will be provided soon.

The opening of the new plant comes weeks after Recyclus announced the opening of its first laboratory, facilitating in-house testing for lead-acid and lithium-ion battery recycling processes.

The program will help companies decarbonize their recycling processes and offer a new way to sell remanufactured devices.

Circular Computing, an information technology remanufacturing company based in London, has launched a global IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) program which will assist partners in decarbonizing their recycling processes.

“We are delighted to be launching a program that enables the pioneers in ITAD to deliver a more sustainable service while delivering against the increasing demand for sustainable technology,” says Scott Mac Meekin, CEO of Circular Computing. “This is all made possible through utilizing the benefits of remanufacturing to close the loop in IT disposal, alongside the added sustainability benefits the program offers.”

The program also allows for the sale of remanufactured devices. The company says all remanufactured devices sold through the program will be carbon neutral, helping businesses meet sustainability targets like the Climate Change Act, Sustainable Development Goals and the carbon zero obligations set via the U.N.

Circular Computing says the program has four key goals:

“By launching our global ITAD program, we have the opportunity to impart our sustainability expertise to help the industry tackle the growing e-waste problem,” says Steve Haskew, head of sustainability at Circular Computing. “Our new, sustainable ITAD program goes beyond simply allowing enterprises to reap the benefits of carbon-neutral hardware but delivers added environmental and social value, too. This expansion of our offering will allow us to reach a greater number of partners through the ITAD network, driving the transition to a circular economy and helping businesses meet the UN SDGs.”

Ohio Valley Aluminum Co. manufactures 6000-series aluminum billet made from recycled scrap for extrusion applications.

Matalco Inc., a division of Toronto-based Giampaolo Group Inc., has acquired the Ohio Valley Aluminum Co. LLC (OVACO), which is based in Shelbyville, Kentucky. KPMG Corporate Finance LLC served as the financial advisor to the OVACO.

According to a news release from KPMG, OVACO was founded in 1955 and manufactures high-quality 6000-series aluminum billet made from recycled scrap for extrusion applications.

“This is an exciting time for OVACO’s continued evolution,” says Steven Richardson, president of OVACO. “We have diligently upgraded systems and made improvements to keep up with our customers’ demands over the last decade. This new chapter in OVACO’s story will further improve our abilities as the synergies realized through this transaction will benefit OVACO, Matalco, and most importantly, our combined customer base.”

Recycling Today reached out to Matalco for comment on the transaction but did not hear back from the company.

Matalco is a large producer of 6000-series aluminum billet for aluminum extrusion and forging applications. The company now operates six billet plants in the United States, with a seventh plant under construction in Franklin, Kentucky, which KPMG says will bring Matalco’s total capacity to 1.6 billion pounds annually.