Fraying at the edges: the condition of domestic wire chopping has some processors on edge.During a previous decade that experienced a telecommunications Communicating information, including data, text, pictures, voice and video over long distance. See communications. boom, the processing of scrap wire and cable seemed like a sensible niche for scrap recyclers to focus on. Unfortunately, a double whammy double whammy Noun informal a devastating setback made up of two elements double whammy n (col) → palo doble double whammy n (inf has since buffeted buf·fet 1 n. 1. A large sideboard with drawers and cupboards. 2. a. A counter or table from which meals or refreshments are served. b. A restaurant having such a counter. 3. this scrap recycling recycling, the process of recovering and reusing waste products—from household use, manufacturing, agriculture, and business—and thereby reducing their burden on the environment. market. First, technology spending in the U.S. spiraled down severely starting in 2001. Around the same time, brokers representing a Chinese Chinese, subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages (see Sino-Tibetan languages), which is also sometimes grouped with the Tai, or Thai, languages in a Sinitic subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan language stock. market that was hungrier for scrap wire and cable and the scrap copper yielded by the stream began competing vigorously for North American North American named after North America. North American blastomycosis see North American blastomycosis. North American cattle tick see boophilusannulatus. scrap wire. The net impact has been a market characterized char·ac·ter·ize tr.v. character·ized, character·iz·ing, character·iz·es 1. To describe the qualities or peculiarities of: characterized the warden as ruthless. 2. by a severe shortage of material to feed the wire and cable chopping chop 1 v. chopped, chop·ping, chops v.tr. 1. a. To cut by striking with a heavy sharp tool, such as an ax: chop wood. b. lines created or upgraded in the 1990s. A COPPER CRAVING craving Psychology A strong desire to consume a particular substance–eg of abuse, or food; craving is a major factor in relapse and/or continued use after withdrawal from a substance of abuse and is both imprecisely defined and difficult to measure. . As a nation of 1 billion people rapidly modernizing its electrical and telecommunications infrastructure, China has demonstrated an insatiable hunger for copper. On the one hand, this should be considered an opportunity for American American, river, 30 mi (48 km) long, rising in N central Calif. in the Sierra Nevada and flowing SW into the Sacramento River at Sacramento. The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill (see Sutter, John Augustus) along the river in 1848 led to the California gold rush of scrap recyclers, especially those with established contacts in the export market. But conversely con·verse 1 intr.v. con·versed, con·vers·ing, con·vers·es 1. To engage in a spoken exchange of thoughts, ideas, or feelings; talk. See Synonyms at speak. 2. , the strong buying activity of brokers representing China has resulted in wire and cable being purchased for overseas shipment before domestic processors can process it. The result has been an acknowledged shortage of material for just about everyone in the domestic wire processing industry, particularly on the copper wire side. "Thank goodness for aluminum cable, or we might not be running any of our chopping lines right now," says one wire processor. Fortunately for domestic processors, while China has a net deficit of copper melting stock relative to its needs, it does not have the same overall shortfall Shortfall The amount by which the capital required to fulfill a financial obligation exceeds available capital. Notes: Shortfall risk is often combated with an efficient hedging strategy created by a fund, group, institution, or individual. in aluminum. But aluminum cable alone is not enough to feed the number of wire processing lines that exist in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. . Aluminum cable, most frequently used for long-distance electrical transmission lines, is a narrow part of the overall market, and it is dependent to a great extent on a strong domestic economy in need of a growing electrical grid. The difficulties in the domestic wire processing industry can be seen clearly in the accompanying list of wire choppers, which last appeared in the fall of 2001, just before the domestic industry's troubles began to set in. (See sidebar (1) A Windows Vista desktop panel that holds mini applications (gadgets) such as a calendar, calculator, stock ticker and Vonage phone dialer. It is the Windows counterpart to the Dashboard in the Mac. See Windows Vista and gadget. .) CHOOSING SIDES. The dilemma faced by wire processors has garnered the attention of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI ISRI Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries ISRI Institute for Software Research, International (Carnegie Mellon University) ISRI Information Science Research Institute ISRI Intelligent Systems Research Institute ), although choosing sides will not make everyone happy. ISRI has alerted its members that it is seeking their input in terms of problems they have had when dealing with Chinese exporters and importers, such as skirting skirt n. 1. The part of a garment, such as a dress or coat, that hangs freely from the waist down. 2. A garment hanging from the waist and worn by women and girls. 3. around value-added taxes value-added tax (VAT), levy imposed on business at all levels of the manufacture and production of a good or service and based on the increase in price, or value, provided by each level. and customs inspection procedures for scrap materials. Although ISRI is doing so as part of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, the trade group has also asked for broader input before formulating positions on free and fair trade. Not all recyclers are convinced that ISRI should be combating against what might be an inevitable tide of manufacturing capacity shifting to Asia. Speaking at ISRI's Commodity Roundtables event in Rosemont, Ill., in September, Marty Forman of Forman Metal Co., Milwaukee, says the battle is already over. Saying he finds it "a shame" that metals industry jobs have been "sold down the river" the same way textiles jobs were a decade earlier, he remarked that both U.S. political parties rarely come together on a political issue, but did so for the NAFTA NAFTA in full North American Free Trade Agreement Trade pact signed by Canada, the U.S., and Mexico in 1992, which took effect in 1994. Inspired by the success of the European Community in reducing trade barriers among its members, NAFTA created the world's and GATT See General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. GATT See General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). treaties. "When NAFTA and GATT were signed, the handwriting HANDWRITING, evidence. Almost every person's handwriting has something whereby it may be distinguished from the writing of others, and this difference is sometimes intended by the term. 2. was on the wall," said Forman. "These were the final nails in the coffin coffin, closed receptacle for a corpse. Its purpose is usually to protect and to aid preservation of the body, although in the past some have believed that it may confine the spirit of the deceased. of our government protecting semi-skilled U.S. jobs in a global marketplace of dirt cheap Adj. 1. dirt cheap - very cheap; "a dirt cheap property" cheap, inexpensive - relatively low in price or charging low prices; "it would have been cheap at twice the price"; "inexpensive family restaurants" labor." Forman continued by asking, "Should ISRI members deny themselves the benefits of a free global market in order to protect the few members in this room who turned out to have made a bad investment in domestic processing capability? "All I need in the scrap business today to sell my goods at the highest price all over the world is a truck dock and I have two truck docks," he continued. "And the sign on my dock doors reads 'welcome' in all languages." Forman says exporting "is the single most profitable and expanding sector of my company, and I intend to fight back vigorously against anybody who wants to take it away from me." The free trade arguments referred to by Forman go well beyond wire mad cable processing and even the metals industry. The decisions that will ultimately signal whether there is a rebound rebound (rē´bownd), n/v 1. a recovery from illness. n 2. an outbreak of fresh reflex activity after withdrawal of a stimulus rebound adjective in the offing coming; arriving in the foreseeable future. visible but not nearby. See also: Offing Offing for domestic wire processors will more likely be made in a variety of high-level venues, including global trade courts and forums; at the U.S. congress and cabinet levels; and in the voting booth, if Americans decide to make global trade policy a critical issue. In the meantime Adv. 1. in the meantime - during the intervening time; "meanwhile I will not think about the problem"; "meantime he was attentive to his other interests"; "in the meantime the police were notified" meantime, meanwhile , with Chinese brokers going directly to the dealers and generators that domestic wire processors have long called upon, the North American wire chopping industry will continue to deal with a fiercely competitive climate.
NORTH AMERICAN WIRE CHOPPING LINES
High-volume wire chopping operations can still be
found in most areas of the country. The list that
follows contains 51 facilities
within the U.S. and four in Canada that operate
one or more wire chopping lines. When our list was
last published in October 2001, the number of facilities
operating wire-chopping lines stood at 63.
We invite readers who know of wire-chopping facilities that
have been omitted from our list to contact us at
dtoto @ RecyclingToday.com so that the location can
be added to our list in upcoming issues.
Alabama Birmingham Metal Management Alabama
Pelham BellSouth Investment Recovery
(Internal processing)
Arizona Tempe Salt River Project
(Internal processing)
California San Jose Sims Metal America
Wilmington G. Harris International
Colorado Denver Atlas Metal and Iron Corp.
Connecticut Wilimantic Prime Materials Recovery Inc.
(formerly Schilberg
Integrated Metals)
Florida Jacksonville Commercial Metals Co.
Georgia Atlanta Regional Recycling
Illinois Carterville Gary's Metal
Chicago Safran Metal Co.
Chicago Tri-State Metal Co.
Cicero United Scrap Metal Inc.
Eldorado Eldorado Enterprises
Indiana Fort Wayne Admetco Inc.
Fort Wayne OmniSource Corp.
Granulator Division
Jonesboro Essex Group Inc.
Indiana Kendallville Admetico Inc.
Nabb Versatille Processing Inc.
Iowa Spencer Shine Brothers Inc.
Lousiana Hammond Burks Specialty Processing Inc.
Massachusetts Holden Salitsky Alloy Inc.
Springfield Joseph Freedman Co. Inc.
Michigan Bay City H. Hirschfield Sons Co.
Grand Rapids Grand Rapids Alloys Inc.
Mississippi Gulfport Southern Scrap Recycling Inc.
Jackson Metal Processors Inc.
(Jackson Iron & Metal Co.)
Missouri Bellefontaine Metal Recovery Systems Neighbors
Kansas City Mallin Brothers Co.
Sedalia Alcan Cable
New Jersey Farmingdale Emil A. Schroth Inc.
Jersey City Fortune Plastic & Metal Inc.
New York Canastota Prime Materials Recovery Inc.*
Lancaster Manitoba Corp.
North Carolina Charlotte Southern Metals Co Inc.
NORTH AMERICAN WIRE CHOPPING LINES
Ohio Warren KKL Corp.
Pennsylvania Erie Liberty iron & Metal Co.
Folcroft Pasco Inc.
Pittsburgh Tube City Inc.
Williamsport Alcan Cable (Internal
processing)
Rhode Island East Providence Fortune Metal Inc. of
Rhode Island*
South Carolina Charleston Charleston Steel & Metal Co.
South Carolina Orangeburg Prime Materials Recovery Inc.
(formerly Simco South)
Spartanburg Carolinas Recycling Group
South Dakota Madison Madison Metals
Texas Dallas Commercial Metals
El Pasco W. Silver Recycling
Waco M. Lipsitz & Co.
Utah Salt Lake City Utah Metal Works
Virginia Richmond Stratton Metals
Washington Tacoma Joseph Simon and Sons
CANADA
Alberta Edmonton General Scrap Iron & Metals
Mapleleaf Metals Industries
Ontario North York Ingot Metal Co. Ltd.
Quebec Montreal American Iron & Metal
* New addition to 2003 list
Italics indicated facilities that could not be reached
for confirmation.
The following facilities operated lines at the time our 2001
wire choopping list was published, through they no longer
have lines in operation.
California Compton P & R Metals**
Gardenia The Copper Chopper
Southgate California Metals Recycling
(formerly MacLeod Metals [a
division of Metal
Management])
Florida Fort Myers Garden Street Iron and Metal
Illinois Chicago Midwest Industrial Metals Co.
Maryland Baltimore Ansam Metals Co.
Massachusetts North Adams A. Shapiro & Sons Inc.
Mississippi Bay St. Louis Alcan Cable**
New York Medford Gershow Recycling
Brooklyn Non-Ferrous Processing Corp.
Buffalo United Alloys & Steel Corp.
Hudson Trans-Cycle Industries Inc.
Oregon Portland Calbag Metals Co.
Tennessee Halls Hutcherson Metals Inc.
Texas San Antonio Newell Recycling
Washington Tacoma Tacoma Metals Inc.
** Facility closed
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