Tex-Isle Inc. plans to open the mill in Robstown, Texas, in the second half of 2021 and will be supplied by EAF steelmakers.

Tex-Isle Inc., headquartered in Houston, has announced plans to open a tubular steel mill in Robstown, Texas, in the third quarter of 2021. The provider of oil country tubular goods (OCTG), line pipe and associated services, says it embarked on a vertical integration initiative in 2009 that has included the creation of two new divisions: Tex-Isle Coating in George West, Texas, and Tex-Isle Processing in Robstown. The greenfield project will be adjacent to its current OCTG heat treating, inspection and threading facility in Robstown. 

According to the company, the new mill will build on its Asset Based Distribution model and provide feedstock to its other facilities, bringing Tex-Isle's total capital investment in the region to nearly $100 million.

Chris Kayem, Tex-Isle president, says,  "A pipe mill is the natural progression of our long-term strategic plan, which started over a decade ago. Our Asset Based Distribution model of vertical integration combines the traditional benefits of distribution with the scope of a manufacturer, creating a unique blend of services for our customers. Once complete, the new mill will dive a level deeper into our cost structure as we continue our crusade against inefficiencies in the supply chain. Having these facilities, along with private ownership and a strong balance sheet, allows us to deliver customer-first service and flexibility. which I'm certain will pay dividends to our clients, our community, and our company for years to come."

The mill will be housed in a 60,000-square-foot facility and is designed to produce steel tubes from 2.375 inches to 8.625 inches in outside diameter. It will be able to produce 350,000 tons per year, of which, 250,000 tons are slated for American Petroleum Institute material, with the remaining 100,000 tons reserved for structural products, according to the company. Tex-Isle says the addition of structural tubulars will deliver much-needed supply to Corpus Christi and south Texas more generally.

Billy Sias, Tex-Isle business development manager, says,  "The growth in the coastal bend area around Corpus Christi provides enormous opportunity for our company. Our growing facility in Robstown has numerous strategic advantages. We are an operating foreign trade zone, we are located on a Union Pacific mainline and we are within 20 minutes of the deep-water Port of Corpus Christi. At the port, we are developing property for a lay down and storage facility and have been one of the major bulk cargo customers over the past number of years. Lastly, Steel Dynamics will be opening a new state of the art electric arc furnace (EAF) steel mill right up the road in Sinton. We feel this is an ideal manufacturing footprint which tightens our supply chain."

The facility will run totally on electric technology, allowing for renewable energy to be used to power the mill, Tex-Isle says. In addition to all-electric manufacturing, the pipe mill's raw material, hot-rolled coil, will be supplied by manufacturers using electric arc furnace (EAF) technology from as much as 85 percent recycled material. 

Kayem adds, “This facility represents our ongoing commitment to expanding our manufacturing capabilities while also lowering our carbon footprint. We are constantly evaluating further opportunities to achieve both of these goals."

David Box has sales experience in the technology industry and has held senior sales positions with ITAD providers.

Wisetek, an information technology asset disposition (ITAD), data destruction, technology reuse and manufacturing services company that operates five offices in the U.S., has appointed David Box as its new vice president of product sales. As part of this role, Box will be responsible for the company’s enterprise, client device and recycling sales globally.

According to a news release from Wisetek, Box has extensive sales experience in the technology industry and has held a number of senior sales positions with ITAD providers. He previously held positions with Hi-Tech Assets, Arrow Electronics, HP and IBM. He also previously served as director of product sales with Wisetek. Box will be based primarily at the company’s facility in Austin, Texas.

“I am delighted to welcome David Box to his new position at Wisetek,” says Sean Sheehan, CEO of Wisetek. “David brings with him extensive management experience of business development and sales management in the technology industry, with over a decade in leadership and consulting roles in the ITAD industry. He will be a central part of our business in terms of driving sales, which will enable us to continue to expand our global footprint and enter new markets.”

The tight trucking market also is affecting movement.

Plastic film scrap has seen strong demand heading into 2021, and the availability of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle scrap has tightened. Regardless of which material contacts are sourcing, all of them point to transportation issues that are making movement of material more difficult and expensive.

“Scrap availability for postconsumer A Grade film is very tight,” says Charlotte Fischer, senior commodities manager for PreZero US Inc.’s Jurupa Valley, California, plant. She attributes that in part to more aggressive buying by consumers in Indonesia, Malaysia and India, the latter of which she describes as actively buying off the West and East coasts. Additionally, she says, “Some LDPE (low-density polyethylene) mills in Taiwan are coming into the market to buy film.”

Fischer says new domestic consumers also have emerged in California and are buying trial loads of film as they ramp up their reclamation operations.

“The market is getting tighter and tighter,” she says. “It’s going to be an interesting year.”

As one would expect, pricing for film scrap has increased along with demand.

Fischer says A Grade LDPE film bales were selling for 10 to 11 cents per pound in the summer of 2020. By the fall, the material was selling in the 13 to 14 cent range. As of mid-January, it is selling for 16 to 17 cents per pound delivered to domestic consumers or FAS (free alongside ship) to the Port of Long Beach, she says.

When it comes to PreZero’s recycled pellets, Fischer says, “Demand is definitely up. We have been selling out every month,” though she adds that operations are still ramping up at the company’s Jurupa Valley plant after it experienced COVID-19-related delays with its startup last year.

Virgin LDPE pricing also has increased recently. “Last spring, virgin pricing was way below where PCR (postconsumer resin) was,” Fischer says. “It’s now way above where PCR is at.”

However, she adds, PreZero is more focused on selling to consumers that are committed to using recycled content rather than to those that are solely motivated by pricing.

Fischer says her colleague who is buying for the company’s South Carolina facility, which is currently reclaiming mixed rigid plastics (MRP), has had no issues securing material. “In the fall, MRP can get pretty tight. He didn’t have that issue this fall going into the winter. There is more than enough MRP to go around.”

By August of this year, Fischer says, PreZero also should be processing MRP in California, while the South Carolina location should be processing film in March and will be ramping up its buying of this material to correspond with the startup of that line.

A PET bottle reclaimer based in the Midwest says scrap material was readily available over the last three to five months following some tightness early in the pandemic related to changes to municipal recycling collections and reduced staffing at material recovery facilities in line with social distancing measures. However, she says, bottle bale supplies began to tighten in January, with a corresponding increase in pricing, though modest.

She says her company is seeing increased demand for its recycled PET (rPET) from new customers and from existing customers that want to increase the recycled content in their packaging.  

That interest has not served to boost the price of PET bottle bales significantly, however, in her region. She says pricing is “phenomenally low,” adding that it would normally increase over the winter as supply wanes.

Paul Bahou, president of PET reclaimer Global Plastics Recycling Inc. in Perris, California, says of scrap availability, “When the weather gets colder, supply is tighter and so pricing goes up.” In California, that tightness has been exacerbated by increased buying out of Mexico, he says, as is the case for LDPE scrap. “Part of that has to do with changes in the relative value of the currency,” he says.

However, Mexico’s peso lost value in early January, while the U.S. dollar increased in value.

Bahou adds that California’s AB 793, which is designed to bolster the market for rPET in the state, is poised to change the market dynamics in the region. Manufacturers must meet a number of deadlines for recycled content, achieving 15 percent by 2022, 25 percent by 2025 and 50 percent by 2030.

Grade A PET bottle bales in California are selling for 16 cents per pound as of mid-January, he adds, though transportation costs are adding considerably more to the cost of bringing in material.

Bahou jokes that securing a truck costs “a full semester of college tuition.” He adds that transportation rates are “more regional than they used to be,” with long-haul prices having increased significantly. For example, the rate to ship via truck to Texas from California has tripled, he says.

Fischer says she’s seen rates double for long-distance hauls and often increase at the last minute. Availability also is tight.

The PET reprocessor in the Midwest also is having issues with long-distance trucking, which has caused her company to plan further ahead in this area. “We are trying to look two and three days ahead and try not to wait until the last minute.”

She also has seen increases in rates at the last minute, though she adds that tends to be on hauls to more remote areas where it’s more difficult for the trucker to get a back-haul.

The American Forest & Paper Association reports that containerboard operating rates were at 93.7 percent in December 2020.

Containerboard production rates increased in December 2020 compared with the same month in 2019. According to the American Forest & Paper Association’s (AF&PA’s) latest "Containerboard Monthly" report, containerboard production in December increased 3 percent compared with December 2019, and it was up 4 percent for all of 2020 compared with all of 2019.

For December 2020, the containerboard operating rate was at 93.7 percent, essentially flat from December 2019, and up 2.3 percent year to date. The association reports that December 2020 production of containerboard for export decreased 22 percent compared with the same month in 2019, and it was up 9 percent year to date.

Mill inventories of containerboard at the end of December 2020 increased 3,000 tons from the previous month and were up 3,000 tons compared with December 2019.

In addition, AF&PA released its December 2020 "Packaging Papers & Specialty Packaging Monthly" report. The association says packaging paper shipments in December increased 8 percent compared with December 2019 and were up 5 percent in 2020 compared with 2019. For December 2020, the operating rate for packaging papers and specialty packaging was at 83.3 percent, which AF&PA states is up 0.6 percent compared with December 2019 and flat year to date.

For packaging papers in December 2020, mill inventories increased 2,000 tons compared with the previous month and increased 3,000 tons compared with December 2019.

Complete reports with detailed tables, charts and historical data can be purchased by contacting Kory Bockman at statistics_publications@afandpa.org or 202-463-4716.

The brake assistant slows the speed of the loader if it detects personnel, and the incident map displays potential risk zones.

Liebherr offers active personnel detection as an assistance system for its L 526 and L 586 XPower range of wheel loaders. The company has announced that it has added two extra functions—the brake assistant and incident map—to its personnel detection. The brake assistant automatically slows the speed of the wheel loader to a standstill the moment the active personnel detection issues a warning signal, and the incident map displays potential risk zones on the site using GPS data in LiDAT, Liebherr’s transfer and location system.

Active personnel detection visually alerts the machine operator via the display screen and sounds acoustic signals if there is danger in the wheel loader’s rear area, Liebherr states in a news release on its new personnel detection assistance systems. The assistance system, using smart sensors, provides specific warning of people in the rear area of the wheel loader at a greater distance than for obstructions such as walls, columns or other vehicles. This means the assistance system avoids unnecessary signals, thereby reducing the burden on the machine operator and causing fewer distractions, Liebherr says.

The moment the active personnel detection system identifies a source of danger, the brake assistant slows the wheel loader to a standstill. According to Liebherr, the braking process is initiated at an earlier stage and more quickly than in the case of traditional braking since, with the brake assistant, there is no delay caused by human reaction time. This means the stopping distance is reduced which, in turn, reduces the frequency and severity of accidents.

In the case of the brake assistant, the hydrostatic components of the drivetrain automatically reduce the speed. Liebherr says this means the machine operator can continue to operate the wheel loader service brake in the normal way and can do this in addition to the brake assistant.

Besides the brake assistant, a second new function for the active personnel detection at the rear is the incident map. According to Liebherr, each time the assistance system detects a danger and a warning signal is issued, the system transmits a GPS signal to LiDAT, Liebherr’s in-house transfer and location system. On the basis of this signal, and for each operator of a wheel loader with active personnel detection, Liebherr provides a Google map in LiDAT showing these GPS points.

The result is an incident map displaying the risk zones and potential sources of danger on the site. According to Liebherr, the operator can use this to take measures to prevent accidents and increase safety. For example, the operator might reroute footpaths, block areas and alter dangerous work sequences. The head of operations can use the incident map to train employees and make them aware of risky situations.

Liebherr says it also offers several intelligent assistance systems for its mid-range and large wheel loader series. In addition to active personnel detection, these include adaptive working lighting, front space monitoring, the skyview 360-degree camera system, the tire pressure monitoring system with sensor support and the new weighing device. According to Liebherr, its goal with its assistance systems is to increase safety and comfort and to support the machine operator.