Open valve: red metals scrap flows to destinations within the United States as well as to overseas consumers.

Copper and brass scrap has continued to flow to some of its traditional homes in North America, such as brass mills and foundries, but it has also been flowing in record amounts to overseas consuming destinations.

Domestically, the copper scrap market suffered in the late 20th century as domestic copper smelters and electro-winning refineries were the subject of great scrutiny by the United States EPA. The closing of the Chemetco Inc. secondary smelter in Hartford, Ill., in 2001 marked the end of large-scale secondary copper smelting in the United States.

In its 2006 report on National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) to the Federal Register, the U.S. EPA notes, "The secondary copper smelting plants that served as the basis for emissions estimates [have all] shut down, and no similar secondary copper smelters have been constructed."

The five smelters that were used by the EPA to establish its standards included the Chemetco facility in Illinois; Cerro Copper Products in Sauget, Ill.; Franklin Smelting in Philadelphia; Gaston Recycling Industries in Gaston, S.C.; and the Southwire Co. plant in Carrollton, Ca.

"Secondary copper smelting was once a thriving industrial sector in the U.S.," the EPA notes, before depressed prices and increased production costs as reasons for the closure of the last several facilities. Operators of those plants--as well as scrap suppliers--would most likely also add regulatory pressures to that list of factors.

The EPA is keeping its NESHAP standards in place, however, as "new technologies provide better control of air emissions and produce inherently lower HAP emission levels because they do not have many of the fugitive emission points associated with the older smelting technologies."

Pointing to the record high prices for copper being paid in the past two years, the EPA authors speculate, "It is possible these higher copper prices will also encourage the return of the secondary copper smelting industry to the U.S. ... to produce refined copper for sale or by companies that use copper as a raw material in their manufacturing processes (e.g. electrical wire and cable manufacturers)."

In the meantime, however, the copper that no longer flows to domestic smelters has instead gone to brass mills, ingot makers and foundries in North America as well as to melting facilities of all types overseas.

In North America, brass mills now melt 73 percent of the copper scrap consumed in the United States (including most prompt scrap), while ingot makers consume 10 percent, refiners 5 percent, and a miscellaneous category that includes foundries and chemical plants consuming the remaining 12 percent.

The export market has climbed this decade, with unsorted copper-bearing scrap in particular heading overseas. According to a report prepared by the Copper Development Association, New York, the United States "has been the world's largest exporter of copper-based scrap since 1999."

The years 2003, 2004 and 2005 saw quickly rising export levels of scrap from the rest of the world to China. Several nations put scrap export barriers in place to keep the feedstock material in place for its own metals producers, a tactic that some North American producers urged their legislators to consider.

Although 2006 figures are not yet final, it appears that the Chinese skyrocket has finally slowed down, although the nation will retain its status (by far) as the leading destination for outbound copper scrap leaving the United States in 2006.

That scrap flows out of ports found throughout the United States, al though as one might expect with China being the leading destination, the Los Angeles port district has been the busiest shipper of red metal scrap thus far in 2006.

East Coast recyclers are also shipping out copper scrap, however, as the port district of New York/New Jersey claims the number two spot.

And scrap flowing from the United States to Canadian destinations is also a factor, as several of the other ten busiest port districts (in terms of handling copper scrap) are in border cities such as Detroit and Buffalo.

As 2007 begins, analysts are predicting that copper pricing will trend downward throughout the year. Writing for Bloomberg in late December, two of that news service's reporters quote several analysts predicting rising inventories as the reason why the pricing frenzy may have peaked in 2006.

Revved up production may finally have caught up with Asia's rising demand. However, an analyst from UBS Warburg notes that China could still re-enter the buying market with great force again in 2007--meaning the remaining United States melting destinations will have to continue to bid against export brokers to acquire the valuable red metal feedstock flowing into scrap recycling facilities.

Red Metals Scrap Destination Map

A map of select red metal scrap melting destinations as well as leading ports of departure.

Brass Mills

1. Ansonia Copper & Brass, Ansonia, Conn.

2. Chicago Extruded Metals Co., Cicero, Ill.

3. Extruded Metal, Belding, Mich.

4. Luvata Buffalo Inc. (formerly Outokumpu), Buffalo, N.Y.

5. Mueller Brass Products, Port Huron, Mich.

6. Olin Brass, East Alton, Ill.

7. Olin Brass (formerly Chase Brass), Montpelier, Ohio

8. PMX, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Copper Products Makers

9. Ansonia Tubing, Waterbury, Conn.

10. Cerro Flow Products, Sauget, Ill.

11. Cerro Flow Products, Bossier City, La.

12. Cerro Flow Products, Mexico, Mo.

13. Cerro How Products, Cedar City, Utah

14. Electralloy, Oil City, Pa.

15. Howell Metal Co. (Div. of CMC), New Market, Va.

16. Hussey Copper Ltd., Leetsdale, Pa.

17. Hussey Copper Ltd., Eminence, Ky.

18. Mueller Copper Tube Products, Wynne, Ark.

19. Mueller Copper Tube Co. Inc., Fulton, Miss.

20. Revere Copper Products Inc., New Bedford, Mass.

21. Revere Copper Products Inc., Rome, N.Y.

22. Wolverine Bronze Co., Roseville, Mich.

23. Wolverine Joining Technologies, Warwick, R.I.

24. Wolverine Tube, Decatur, Ala.

25. Wolverine Tube, Shawnee, Okla.

26. Wolverine Tube, London, Ontario, Canada

Ingot and Alloy Makers

27. Atlas Pacific Corp., Bloomington, Calif.

28. G.A. Avril Co., Cincinnati

29. W.J. Bullock Inc., Birmingham, Ala.

30. California Metal-X, Los Angeles

31. Colonial Metals, Columbia, Pa.

32. Federal Metal Co., Bedford, Ohio

33. H. Kramer & Co., Chicago

34. Ingot Metal Co. Ltd., Weston, Ontario, Canada

35. Monett Steel Castings, Monett, Mo.

36. National Metals Inc., Leeds, Ala.

37. River Recycling Industries, Cleveland

38. I. Schumann & Co., Bedford, Ohio

39. SIPI Metals Corp., Chicago

40. Warrenton Copper LLC, Warrenton, Mo

Scrap-Melting Foundries

41. Magnolia Metal Corp., Auburn, Neb.

42. National Bronze & Metals Inc., Lorain, Ohio

43. Weldaloy Products Corp., Warren, Mich.

Copper Refineries and Smelters

(Some of these facilities accept copper scrap, often depending on market conditions and permit status)

44. Asarco, Hayden, Ariz.

45. Asarco, Amarillo, Texas

45. HudBay Minerals Smelter, Flin Flon, Manitoba

47. Inco, Sudbury, Ontario

48. Noranda, Montreal-East, Quebec

49. Noranda-Horne Smelter, Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec

50. Phelps-Dodge, Morenci, Ariz.

51. White Pine Copper Refinery (HudBay Minerals), White Pine, Mich.

Red Metal Scrap Ports of Departure

(Ranked by volume, Jan-Oct. 2006)

1. Los Angeles, 76.1 million lbs.

2. NewYork, 18.7 million lbs.

3. Detroit, 17.2 million lbs.

4. San Francisco, 11.3 million lbs.

5. Buffalo, 11.2 million lbs.

6. Seattle, 9.9 million lbs.

7. Savannah, 9.0 million lbs.

8. Ogdensburg, N.Y., 5.3 million lbs.

9. Charleston, S.C., 4.8 million lbs.

10. Norfolk, Va., 4.2 million lbs.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The author is editor of Recycling Today and can be contacted at [e-mail].

OVERSEAS TRIPS

(U.S. Copper Scrap Exports; metric tons)

DESTINATION     JANUARY-JULY 2005     JANUARY-JULY 2006

China                     447,000               253,500
Canada                     41,800                62,100
South Korea                37,400                20,708
Germany                    20,590                16,677
Taiwan                     22,200                16,677
Hong Kong                  22,000                 9,974
India                      20,260                 8,480
Japan                      14,660                 7,707