Schnitzer aims for Boston shredder restart by March

US metal recycler Schnitzer Steel expects to resume shredding at its mega-shredder near Boston, Massachusetts, by the end of February following an early-December fire.

Schnitzer said today that property damage and loss from the 8 December fire was limited to the facility's shredder equipment and building. It expects to resume shredding operations this quarter. Schnitzer's fiscal second quarter ends 28 February.

Insurance is expected to cover most of the repair and replacement costs and a significant amount of lost income, Schnitzer chief executive Tamara Lundgren said today on the company's quarterly earnings call.

The mega-shredder in Everett has an estimated daily throughput maximum of 2,500 short tons/day and serves as the major consumer of light iron for Boston and the surrounding region.

The outage has negatively impacted shredder feed prices across New England because of limited neighboring outlets for material. Argus shredder feed prices dropped to $220-240/gross ton (gt) delivered dock from $260-270/gt before the fire, with trading volumes limited while some suppliers bale material and others ship to inland processors.

The shredder outage has also not stopped Schnitzer's bulk ferrous scrap exports from Everett, with the Thor Integrity departing from the location on 3 January for Turkey, according to vessel tracking data.

The fire had no impact on the company's fiscal first quarter results which ended 30 November but comes at a time when the company posted its highest ever first quarter earnings.

Schnitzer posted a $47mn profit in the latest quarter, up from $14mn a year prior and $38mn profit in the previous quarter.

By Brad MacAulay