In motion: Canadian metal exports down, dollar value up in 2002. (Canadian Market Report).

For the Canadian recycled metal industry, 2002 was a positive year. "Business is getting better, particularly for guys in ferrous metals," says Len Shaw, executive director of CARI (Canadian Association of Recycling Industries). "There is a fair bit of uncertainty though. We haven't yet felt the full impact of the Gerdau AmeriSteel reverse merger with Co-Steel (where Co-Steel will manage GerdauAmeriSteel's North American assets in return for which Gerdau received enough shares to give it control of Co-Steel).

Although Canadian industry exports were down from 2001, prices were up. Mike Clapham, National Resources Canada Recycling Minerals and Metals Section environmental specialist, reports that demand for recyclable materials and recycled products domestically and globally is steadily increasing.

The most recent data--as of March 2003--provided by the Canadian Department of Natural Resources shows that scrap exports last year stood at 2,993,000 metric tons, as compared to 3,246,824 metric tons in 2001. The industry, however, earned $1.425 billion last year as compared to $1.391 billion the year before.

Canada imported 1,944,000 metric tons of scrap last year (compared with 1,776,588 in '01) valued at $1.774 billion, slightly less than the $1.778 billion paid out the year before.

TAKING THE PULSE. "We've been very, very busy," says Michel Poulin, vice-president of Quebec Metals Recycling, a division of Quebec SNF, which has a workforce of 275. "It's about time we had a good year."

The company did the same amount of volume, Poulin reports, but good demand and higher returns on some items helped the firm regain some profitability.

Rick Sobottka, vice-president of corporate development for Triple M Metals, agrees that last year was a good year for the industry. Triple M is the largest metals recycler in Ontario.

"It was a good year for us," says Sobottka, noting that the company has added to its staff, particularly in the human resources and environmental health and safety areas. Triple M also received its ISO 9000 and 14000 certification last year.

Triple M has plants in Brampton, Ontario, the Maritime provinces and Winston-Salem, N.C., plus a trading office in Montreal and a presence in several American states. The company has recently opened another American trade office--in New Jersey--and has secured a contract with a major customer in Great Britain. Sobottka reports that the company is growing by about 45 percent per year.

"So far this year, business is still good," Sobottka says. "After a year of consolidation and re-organization, we are again looking to expand both through natural growth and acquisition in Canada or the States."

Montreal-based American Iron and Metal Inc. spokesperson Gary Mintz also reports an excellent past year. "Steel and aluminum prices were both very strong," he says. "Our business is growing tremendously. We now have a presence in Cleveland and Missouri as well as New York and New Jersey."

Last year, American Iron and Metal added 25,000 square feet to its main plant and installed a new high speed baler and a shredder which, Mintz says, produces "Beautiful shredded scrap." The company employs more than 450 workers.

PACIFIC HEIGHTS. On the west coast, David Yocholwitz, general manager of Vancouver-based ABC Recycling, reports that while prices for steel are up, the nonferrous metal side is being impacted by Chinese competition.

"We were seeing a lot more Chinese brokers as the year went on," he says. "That meant less material available for us and squeezed margins. While business is still good, we can see shortages in supply ahead."

Brian McIver of Nova Pb, Canada's leading lead recycler, reports that that sector had another tough year in 2002. Echoing Yocholwitz, McIver notes that lead production and exports from China had a significant negative impact on world supply and demand dynamics in the lead market. In addition, the generation of spent lead-acid batteries in Canada continued to decline last year despite a strong economy and increasing numbers of vehicles on the road, because batteries are lasting longer, McIver notes. In December, he says, Noranda's Brunswick Smelter announced that because of a weak lead market, its Belledune lead smelter will be operating on a seasonal basis or be shutting down for four months per year, resulting in a 22 percent reduction in annual lead production.

"At Nova," he reports, "we received a new operating permit last June that allows us to process spent pot-liners (SPL) generated by the primary aluminum industry. Our proprietary technology converts hazardous SPL material into CALSiFrit, a commercial material that will be entirely consumed by the cement industry. All incoming SPL and other raw materials will be recycled with no hazardous waste or by-products generated."

Nova spent more than $7 million U.S. developing the new technology and started commercially recycling SPL in January. The current installation is capable of recycling approximately 35,000 metric tons of spent aluminum pot liners per year. The new process uses one of Nova's two long rotary kilns and will reduce Nova's lead smelting capacity by about 50,000 metric tons.

GOVERNMENT FRONT. CARI members are pleased with the direction outlined in the government's Canada Action Plan 2000 on Climate Change with its emphasis on enhanced recycling. Mike Clapham notes that CARI was very much involved in the consultation process.

"It is too early to say what might come of this," he says. "We are still trying to get the government to accept the fundamental fact that the recycling industry is not just about waste. It should be encouraged as a sustainable development industry."

One measure of that recognition would be tax changes that would put the recycling industries on the same playing field with primary metal industries. "We complement and compete with primary resource industries," says Len Shaw. "We should have the same tax advantages, such as being able to write off certain equipment."

In municipal recycling news, the City of Winnipeg in the fall will become one of the first in Canada to move to single-stream recycling as a result of a deal with Vancouver-based International Paper Industries Ltd. to build a state-of-the-art recycling plant in an abandoned north Winnipeg garbage incinerator. The Vancouver company will be installing a huge conveyor belt in the 55-year-old building that will be able to mechanically sort and separate the 34,000 metric tons of recyclables that the city of about 650,000 produces each year. The new plant enables the city to process plastic containers with resin numbers 1, 2, 5 and 7 plastic for the first time.

Last year, International Paper won the $41.6-million (Canadian) city contract over the next 14 years to collect, sort and sell Winnipeg's recyclables.

NORANDA TAKES STOCK

Noranda Inc. says that a recent report by the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), "Taking Stock 2000," demonstrates the importance of recycling at Noranda's Canadian operations. "Taking Stock" has led some media to wrongly conclude that Noranda's operations release large quantities of pollutants, based on data that includes releases of pollutants and transfers for metal recycling.

L. Jacques Moulins, director, Environment, Health and Safety at Noranda and Falconbridge, says, "In order to produce high purity metal products, our smelters and refineries must first remove all of the impurities. These metal impurities are not discarded to landfills but are reprocessed by other Noranda facilities to maximize value and minimize releases. We have sharply reduced our releases to the environment while increasing metal production, and we'll continue to do so."

The CEC data actually showed that more than 96 percent of "total releases and transfers" at Noranda's CCR copper refinery in Montreal-East, Quebec were transfers to other facilities for metal recycling.

Moulins added, "Intra-company transfers of recyclable materials account for most of the total releases and transfers that Noranda reports to Environment Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory. Unfortunately, this important fact was not well presented to the public."

Noranda also has announced its investment in a new electronic hardware recycling facility which will be located in Brampton, Ontario. Noranda expects the plant will process approximately 1 million pounds of end-of-life electronics per month after opening this summer, recycling 100 percent of all electronic hardware.

CARI NAVIGATES THE TIMES

The Canadian Association of Recycling Industries (CARI) is preparing to host its 62nd annual convention this June 14-16.

The convention, themed "Navigating the Times," will be held at the Casino Nova Scotia Hotel in Halifax and include educational sessions as well as exhibits. CARI Executive Director ken Shaw says the theme is timely because of the number of issues facing the recycling industry, from changes in trucking laws to demand from China.

"The convention is a significant networking opportunity," he says, crediting the show's intimate nature as opposed to larger industry events. "People tend to tell us that they had a good time, as well as an opportunity to meet with people," Shaw says.

The sessions for the 2003 convention include business management, a scrap consumer panel and creative problem solving.

Shaw says the session on business management is particularly tangible for small businesses, as it will address changes affecting trucking. "The movement of material is the heart of the industry," Shaw says. Addressing this issue will be David Bradley of the Ontario Trucking Association. Also speaking about nonferrous specifications will be Tom Pele, president of Connecticut Metal Industries and a former nonferrous committee chairman for the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc.

The consumer panel will include Andre Johannpeter, COO of Gerdau-AmeriSteel, and Robert Stein, vice president of nonferrous marketing for Alter Trading.

David Ben will provide the presentation on creative problem solving. The former tax lawyer will encourage attendees, with the aid of magic, to approach problems with innovative thinking.

Those interested in additional information may visit www.cari-acir.org or phone Donna Turner at [phone].

The author is a freelance writer living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He can be reached at [e-mail].