Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc., headquartered in Portland, Ore., Said it reached a definitive agreement on Aug. 12 to acquire Columbus Recycling, with ferrous and non-ferrous recycling operations in the southeast. The company also announced the restart of production at its Cascade steel rolling mills in McMinnville, Oregon.
The restart of production at Cascade Steel this week follows the substantial completion of replacement and repairs to the plant’s smelting shop property and equipment that was lost or damaged by fire on May 22, a Schnitzer said. Cascade has resumed operations with a full workforce several weeks ahead of schedule and is accepting orders for its full line of finished steel products based on the rolling schedule. In light of the timing of the restart and ramping up operations, the company said Cascade is expected to achieve a limited number of sales before the end of August, Schnitzer’s fiscal year end.
Schnitzer Steel Industries President and CEO Tamara Lundgren said, “I am proud of our team’s exceptional efforts to get the plant back into production sooner than expected, which allows us to support our customers with high quality finished steel products. Cascade is powered Combined with the use of recycled metal as the main raw material, the steel made in our Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) steel plant has an exceptionally low carbon impact compared to the industry average. “
With respect to the Columbus Recycling deal, this company is a provider of ferrous and non-ferrous metal recycling products and services that operates eight operating facilities in several Southeast states, including Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. Schnitzer said the transaction is expected to close in the company’s first quarter of fiscal 2022, subject to regulatory approvals.
Founded in 1956, Schnitzer says Columbus Recycling has a well-established, customer-focused business that purchases and processes scrap metal from industrial manufacturers, local recycling companies and individuals, selling the recycled products to regional smelters and steel plants. Combined with Schnitzer’s nine existing facilities in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, the acquired operations will provide additional recycling products, services and logistics solutions to customers and suppliers in the Southeast, a region expected to experience a significant increase in EAF steelmaking capacity in the coming years, says the company.
Further illustrating the importance of this region, earlier this week SA Recycling LLC, based in Orange, Calif., Also announced the purchase of the business assets of Southern Recycling LLC, including locations in Nashville, Tennessee, and Bowling Green and Owensboro, Kentucky.
According to Argus Media, which cites data from the American Iron and Steel Institute, the South was the top steel-producing region in the United States last year, with an average crude steel production of nearly 601,000 tonnes. per week.
Argus says an additional 6.2 million tonnes per year of flat-rolled capacity is expected to be commissioned in the region from late 2020 to 2022.
In the 12 months to the end of May, Columbus delivered annual sales volumes of around 300,000 tonnes of iron, which on a pro-forma basis, according to Schnitzer, would increase its total iron volumes by around 7 % over the same period.
“The acquisition of Columbus Recycling will expand our platform and our offerings into a robust regional market with immediate scale and significant synergies,” said Lundgren. “The transaction is in line with our growth strategy to expand metal recycling operations to meet increased metal demand in part due to the global shift to low carbon technologies. While a variety of solutions will be needed as industries, communities and governments actively pursue carbon emissions reductions, the increased use of recycled metals is a path that is immediately achievable.