Dutch metals recycler sets sights on UK expansion

A major Dutch metals recycling company has unveiled plans to become a major player in the UK market, with acquisitions on the cards as part of its expansion.

Van Dalens UK managing director, Tom Bird, told letsrecycle.com last week (August 18) that the company planned to double the amount of scrap metal it handles in the UK over the next three years from 0.5 million tonnes to one million tonnes.

Mr Bird – who previously spent 14 years at metals giant Sims – said the company would achieve this by expanding its existing UK operations and acquiring other companies if the right business comes up.

Van Dalen entered the UK market in 2000 and currently has six sites nationwide. These include two operations on the North East coast at South Shields and Hartlepool, a site at Immingham on the Lincolnshire coast, one in Sheffield where the firms UK operations are headquartered, and a presence in the South East at Chatham in Kent and Dagenham in Essex.

The companys operations are focused on buying scrap metal from collectors and merchants, although Mr Bird said it also had unnamed local authority contracts in some areas.

Material is then exported overseas its operations in Immingham and Hartlepool are deep sea which means large ships can dock there to for metal to be exported globally.

Mr Bird explained that, while Van Dalen traditionally focused on ferrous metal in the UK, were expanding our non-ferrous business. Were putting a big non-ferrous centre into our Sheffield operation, which will be up and running in September and weve expanded non-ferrous activities in the South East.

Its a very important part of the business and an important area we need to expand into, he added. The company is also introducing a shredder to its Sheffield operation its second in the UK, with one already installed in Dagenham.

And, Mr Bird raised the potential for Van Dalen to build its UK business through acquisitions, explaining: Were also looking, if the right business comes up, to acquire businesses. Theres a real desire to invest in the UK.

In recent years, the UK metal recycling market has seen significant consolidation, most recently with Sims acquiring Dunn Brothers in May 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story). This trend was acknowledged by Mr Bird, but he said we feel we offer a choice from the bigger hitters.

Were a decent-sized business but were looking to establish ourselves as a major player, he said, adding that though there has been consolidation in the market, theres still plenty of room for operation.

Markets

Mr Bird offered a generally positive assessment of current global markets for scrap metal, explaining that for ferrous material Turkey had been the major driver for the last couple of years, which has kept the market relatively buoyant.

But, he added: It would be nice to see the Asian market come back on a little bit more aggressively.

There had been concerns that ongoing volatility on global stockmarkets could impact on recyclable prices, but Mr Bird said any impact on ferrous prices had been limited.

Recently, with issues weve had, thats created a little bit of uncertainty but thats evened out, he said, adding that, for non-ferrous, markets had dropped back but there was now a little bit more confidence coming back.