PSC receives incentives for shredder move

The city of St Louis this week granted metals recycler PSC Metals a tax break and financing to incentivize the relocation of its newly-acquired shredder in nearby Illinois to the city.

The St Louis Port Authority awarded PSC a 10-year, 75pc personal property tax abatement to support moving the 4,000-horsepower Wendt machine to replace its existing shredder in St Louis, as opposed to the company operating it at its current location in Alton, Illinois. The city valued the tax incentives at $500,000 over 10 years.

The port authority will also purchase the shredder from PSC using $9mn in revenue bonds as part of a sale-and-leaseback arrangement designed to facilitate the tax abatement, according to a representative from the port.

Market participants suggested the upgrade will boost the PSC's shredded output in St Louis to around 10,000 gt/month. A representative from PSC declined to comment on the timeline for the move.

PSC purchased the shredder in 2018 from Indiana-based recycler MetalX. MetalX acquired it from Chicago-based Azcon Metals, who purchased the machine new in 2009 and installed it in Alton before idling it in 2015.

Ohio-based PSC operates three locations in St Louis, including a barge-loading facility on the Mississippi river. Shredding operations will remain at the existing Hall Street location, from which river market scrap is trucked to the barge dock. Scrap is also moved from the facility by truck and rail.

St Louis' other shredder is owned by Grossman Iron and Steel, which operates an 8,000-horsepower mega shredder.

PSC operates more than 30 locations in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Georgia. The company is owned by billionaire investor Carl Icahn's Icahn Enterprises.