New territories in metal recycling
Increasing demand for metal in France has made people turn to new avenues in search of the precious commodity. At Chateauroux Airport for instance old planes are beginning to become yet another source for the global scrap metal
recycling business.
Currently the world’s scrap metal business supplies close to fifty per cent of the world’s steel. Experts put its value at around one hundred billion euros annually. Demand for scrap metals has expanded in a big way as the economies of countries such as China and India expand. This has resulted in raising prices for scrap metal.
Charles Kofyan of Bartin Group, which recycles aircraft at Chateauroux Airport however disclosed that while they source their scrap metal from aircraft, vehicles still remain their number one source.
The French scrap metal market is full of family-owned firms, but of late waste management giants have entered the scene. Veolia Environmental Services for instance acquired Bartin Recycling Group in February.
The waste management giants have been attracted by the high prices for scrap metal. For instance the prices for low-grade steel scrap have gone up from eighty to one hundred euros a tonne in 2002 to one hundred and ninety euros in 2007.
Cyril Fraissinet, senior vice president of Suez Environment’s waste business, admitted while one of the reasons to pursue metal recycling was to meet the requirements of the industrial customers the other was because the prices were good.
It is projected that unless there is a global market crash, scrap metal prices will remain high since emerging markets continue to demand more of it.
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