Curbing their enthusiasm

Companies with multiple locations and, in most cases, significant auto shredding capacity largely have spent the previous two years managing existing operations and trying to coax as much scrap as possible into their yards.

Recycling Today’s 2020 list of North America’s largest ferrous scrap processors does not include any newcomers. Also, in contrast to nearly every previous edition of this list, none of the 20 largest companies from two years earlier was acquired.

Volume figures for 2019 were, on average, about 8 percent lower for companies that reported their 2019 and 2017 annual figures to Recycling Today. The reduced volumes largely were attributable to a calendar year that featured scale prices that headed downward in the spring and the fall.

The lower scale prices meant that even good operators struggled to achieve volume growth. While growth—and profits—were sometimes hard to find in 2019, the companies on our list did their best to manage through the difficult year and into what they hope will be a better year in 2020.

To view the list and the complete article which appears in the April issue of Recycling Today, a sister publication to Construction & Demolition Recycling, visit www.RecyclingToday.com/article/largest-ferrous-scrap-processors-list-2020.