Steel giant Corus has said it could need to source up to 100,000 tonnes of cans in 2010 as it steps up its re-entry into the steel can recycling market after withdrawing in late 2008.

And, the company has issued a call to collectors and local authorities for more material to be fed into its newly-established duo of steel can-bulking centres - in South Wales and Cumbria - which were set up in September 2009 to replace the national network of 14 CanRoute centres (see letsrecycle.com story).

Corus has said it could require up to 100,000 tonnes of steel packaging next year

Speaking to letsrecycle.com today (October 27), the manager of Corus Steel Packaging Recycling, David Williams, explained that the new Corus Approved Steel Packaging Recycling plant being run in partnership with Pontypool Steel, in Pontypool, was "properly established", and sending cans into Corus' Port Talbot steel works.

He added that the second of the plants being used to check, store and bale cans -which is being run by Derwent Recycling in Workington - was being installed with a new baler to allow it to fully operate as a Corus-approved facility.

With the plants established, Mr Williams said that "what we need to try to do now is get more material in", adding that "next year Corus could require anything between 50,000 and 100,000 tonnes of cans".

This would compare favourably with the 68,000 tonnes of steel packaging which passed through Corus' now-defunct CanRoute system in 2007.

Price

Mr Williams also revealed that Corus was currently offering between £80 and £90 per tonne for cans, noting that, while the price was dependent on whether or not the cans were delivered into the new plants, it was "no less than £80".

The old CanRoute system was based on a set price per tonne of cans delivered into one of the centres, and Mr Williams said that, while no decision had been made on a set value for the new network, it was "edging towards that".

Corus scrapped CanRoute after leaving the market for steel cans in late 2008 when demand for new steel production plummeted (see letsrecycle.com story).

And, Mr Williams acknowledged that, by ending the network, "we virtually ripped up 10 years of work".

But, he claimed, with the PERN price people would get by sending cans overseas "in freefall", "all exporters who were exporting for PERN are going to have to look to the domestic market again", and claimed that if people wanted a "secure, safe domestic market" they should work with Corus.

He added that Corus was stepping up production at its Port Talbot works, with the facilty's second furnace coming back on-line.

Corus has now begun working the newly established steel can baling centres to go out and talk potential sources of cans, including its established contacts that used the CanRoute system.

Under the new offering, the company aims to use Derwent to cover the area north of the M62 motorway and Pontypool Steel for the area below that, and is able to offer transport for cans that have been collected by councils, waste management companies and community recyclers.