Platts Metal Week
Volume 74 Number 20
May 19, 2003
Bermco Aluminum Invests $1-Mil in Shredder...
U.S. secondary aluminum alloy smelter Bermco Aluminum is investing more than $1-mil in a Williams 6100 shredding system that is expected to lower costs and increase the company's scrap processing capability by almost 300%. The 1,200-horsepower, 104-inch feed shredder and preparation system will be installed at Bermco's facility in Bessemer, Alabama, and is capable of preparing as much as 50,000lbs of material for melting per hour, according to company officials. The shredder is expected to be in full operation by late summer, at which point Bermco's capacity for specification alloy production will be 12-mil to 15-mil lb/month, said sales manager Robert Hollabaugh
Bermco currently produces A380, 319, 413, 356 and 360 specification alloys using old sheet and cast, mixed low-copper clips, auto shreds and turnings. Steve Weinstein, Bermco president and CEO commented, "This increased preparation capability will enable us to meet the significantly increased requirements of our customers while producing a more environmentally friendly feedstock, thanks to a 50,000 cubic-feet-per-minute air filtration system." Added Hollabaugh, "Our sales group is excited because we will now have enough product to offer existing customers as well as the new opportunities which have come to us over the past 12-18 months"
The US Southeast is considered a growth area for automotive diecasting thanks to automotive assembly and parts plants supporting Hyundai Motor, Honda and Toyota in Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina. In addition, Teksid has a cylinder head and cylinder block plant in Sylacauga, Alabama that consumes 20,000 mt/year of 319 alloy. Bermco's competitor, Wabash Alloys, recently acted on the growth area by purchasing the former Culp Aluminum Alloys plant in Steele, Alabama and announcing it may reopen its Russellville, Alabama smelter sometime after 2003 as Alabama volumes grow. The Bermco officials indicated they were working toward new contracts related to the region's automotive growth but declined to provide specifics. From a scrap purchasing perspective, Bermco's new shredder means "we will now be able to process incoming loads faster than ever and will be able to give our raw materials suppliers more timely and accurate reports." said Bermco seior buyer Tim Ball.
