BUSINESS/ORGANIZATIONAL BRIEFS

Perham Resource Recovery fined

United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 has reached an agreement with Perham Resource Recovery Facility, a municipal waste combustor in Perham, Minnesota, on alleged clean-air violations.

The agreement, which includes a $15,950 penalty and a $110,760 environmental project, resolves EPA allegations that the facility exceeded emission standards for hydrogen chloride and mercury.

American LaFrance exits bankruptcy

American LaFrance, LLC emerged successfully from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy effective July 24, 2008. Concurrent with its emergence from bankruptcy, American LaFrance has announced a significant restructure of its business and a transformation of organization, processes and a segregation of facilities to better serve its product lines in domestic and global markets.

In a major effort to improve profitability, timely delivery and to create room for soon to be announced new ventures, the fire business will be moved from Summerville, South Carolina to the American LaFrance facilities in Ephrata, Pennsylvania and Hamburg, New York according to American LaFrance. Summerville will remain the center of excellence for commercial cab and chassis models, including chassis manufactured for the fire, refuse and construction markets (street sweepers, refuse haulers, concrete pumpers, etc.).

Schnitzer acquires three auto parts businesses

Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc. announced that its Auto Parts Business has acquired three self-service used auto parts businesses located in Little Rock, Arkansas and San Antonio, Texas.

Schnitzer purchased the assets and business of U-Pull-It Auto Parts, Inc., U-Pull-It Jacksonville, Inc., and Roosevelt U-Pull-It, Inc., which were previously owned and operated by Gary Johnson.

Universal Package names new general manager

Universal Package Systems announced the promotion of Jonathan Brandes to the position of general manager. Brandes has been with the company for the past three years, previously holding a sales position with the fast-growing company.

His new responsibilities include maintaining and improving customer relations, new business development, and plant and warehouse supervision.

Previously, Brandes worked with Tecumseh Corrugated Box Company, working as head designer, before moving into sales with the company. He also spent time with The Servants Incorporated, a paper sheet plant, where he gained experience as a sample maker.

ArcelorMittal acquires Rolanfer Recyclage

ArcelorMittal announces it has acquired the outstanding 60 percent of the shares in Rolanfer Recyclage S.A. (Rolanfer), which now gives it 100 percent control over the company.

Rolanfer is based in Yutz (France) near Thionville on the border with Luxembourg and operates a shredder at the port of Illange. Rolanfer specializes in the processing and recycling of scrap metal products including incinerated scrap, shredded scrap, and demolition scrap.

The bulk of its production is delivered to ArcelorMittal sites in Luxembourg. This acquisition will assist in securing the supply of scrap metal to ArcelorMittal operations in the region.

In 2007, Rolanfer’s gross turnover was US$20.6 million and it shipped approximately 86,000 tons of scrap metal for the year. Rolanfer currently employs 24 staff and its new managing director is David Iroz.

AF&PA chooses director of communications

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) announced that Scott Milburn has been named executive director of AF&PA Strategic Communications. Milburn will coordinate AF&PA’s communication outreach to industry, policy and opinion leaders, and the media.

Milburn has a background in state and federal government, as well as public affairs consulting. He most recently served as vice president in the issues management practice of APCO Worldwide.

Milburn has an extensive background in public policy communication, having served as press secretary in the White House Office of Management and Budget under directors Joshua Bolten and Rob Portman, and as senior communication advisor to members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, as well as a governor. In all of these positions he worked closely on energy and environmental policy, as well as other issues central to manufacturing and agriculture.

Veolia selects Chicago for new headquarters

Veolia Environnement has selected Chicago as its new North American headquarters for the company’s four operational groups.

The company has signed a lease for 34,500 sq. ft. of space in Aon Center (200 East Randolph Street).

Veolia Environnement’s North American headquarters will house approximately 60 executive managers and administrative personnel from four operational groups focused on water services and technologies, waste services, energy and facility management, and passenger transportation.

Harsco receives 10-year contract from steel plant

Harsco Corporation announced that its worldwide mill services division has been awarded a new ten-year contract valued at more than $60 million over its duration to provide on-site environmental services to ArcelorMittal’s Dunkirk steel works in northern France.

Harsco’s award includes the construction of a new dehydrating plant that will process the mill’s blast furnace and melt shop sludge by-products into reusable filter cake material suitable for use within the steelmaking process, as well as other external applications. The award also includes the screening and blending of various by-product materials for on-site recycling to the mill’s sinter plant, which produces materials for charging the mill’s three blast furnaces. Work is scheduled to commence at the beginning of 2009.

IronPlanet reports record second quarter in 2008

IronPlanet posted record sales in the second quarter of 2008, with gross auction sales of $91.3 million - an increase of 37 percent over the second quarter of 2007. This year’s second quarter represents a 17 percent growth over the first quarter of 2008. The company’s year-to-date performance of $168.9 million is a 70 percent increase over the same period in 2007.

In the second quarter, IronPlanet drew an average of 14,000 visitors per auction, an increase of 35 percent over the second quarter of 2007.

Lovejoy appoints new torsional product manager

Lovejoy, Inc. announced the appointment of Greg Taylor as torsional product manager.

Taylor’s role is to oversee the marketing, engineering, coordination, and sales efforts for Lovejoy’s wide range of torsional couplings. He works directly with distributors and original equipment manager accounts. At Lovejoy, Taylor’s goals are to develop innovative products and to grow the torsional products market.

Prior to Lovejoy, Taylor worked as an application manager for Power Great Lakes, Inc. in Wood Dale, Illinois.

China Recycling Energy appoints new CFO

China Recycling Energy Corp. announced the appointment of Xinyu Peng as chief financial officer, effective immediately.

Peng joins CREG from the Asia offices of Tavistock Group, a global private equity firm. While at Tavistock Group (Asia), Peng was a vice president engaged in investment and financing in Greater China. In the past five years, Peng held CFO positions at Mod3 Cabinets & Home LLC in Tampa, Florida, a manufacturer of wood kitchen cabinets, and at Creative Hospitality Concepts LLC in Tampa, Florida. From 2002 to 2003, Peng was CFO and chief representative of Sino Agri-Tech Inc., under Asia Capital Group.

Total Resource Auctions acquires auction pool

Total Resource Auctions’ president, Jamie Porter, announced the acquisition of the Texas-based Central Cities Auction Pool business assets and operations. This move expands Total Resource Auctions’ national footprint to 56 locations, including five in Texas.

Central Cities Auction Pool president Carroll Estes will continue to run the operation with his wife, Annette, and son, Chad.

Central Cities Auction Pool will continue to offer AIMS Software to customers and run its operating system. In addition, Central Cities Auction Pool will host, manage and maintain AIMS Net.

Brookfield invests in safer recycling technology

Brookfield Resource Management, Inc. has invested in an upgrade of its fluid evacuation systems. The upgrade makes Brookfield’s Elmsford, New York, recycling facility cleaner, safer and more efficient th­anks to new equipment that safely collects and stores fluids from end-of-life vehicles.

Brookfield is the first recycling facility in the state of New York to utilize the specialized equipment capable of collecting nearly all types of automotive fluids. The Seda-Easy Drain, manufactured by Seda Environmental, is a system that uses compressed air to remove virtually all fluids in a safe and efficient manner. All of the vehicle fluids are pumped into dedicated recovery tanks and recycled.

Brookfield’s new fluid containment system has huge environmental benefits. The updated process prevents spills and cross-contamination of vehicle fluids.

Chuck Schott advances at Smurfit-Stone

Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation has named Chuck Schott central region vice president of manufacturing for the company’s container division.

Schott joined Smurfit-Stone in 1984 as a production employee at the company’s Fargo, North Dakota box plant and has served in a variety of sales and sales management roles throughout his career. He most recently served as area sales manager for the container division’s Lake Superior area.

Schott replaces John Yoder, who was recently named the division’s vice president of manufacturing services.

New distributor for Badger Shredding named

Badger Shredding Products Inc., located in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, announced that Heavy Machines Inc. has been signed up to represent the Badger Shredding line of Shredding Equipment in the States of Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Neenah Enterprises acquires Morgan’s Welding

Neenah Enterprises, Inc. and Neenah Foundry Company announced that a newly-created, wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company has purchased substantially all of the business and assets of Morgan’s Welding, Inc., a steel fabricator located in Pennsylvania, for a cash purchase price of $3.85 million, plus the assumption of approximately $0.3 million of current liabilities, subject to a working capital adjustment. Upon closing, the new subsidiary changed its name to Morgan’s Welding, Inc.

The purchase was financed through borrowings under the Company’s existing credit facility.

The Company expects this acquisition to significantly improve its ability to service customers in the municipal markets in the Northeastern United States by allowing it to package fabricated steel gratings with its iron casting products, thus offering a more complete array of street drainage products to the marketplace.

Nucor to install a plate heat treating facility

Nucor Corporation plans to install a plate heat treating facility at its plate mill in Hertford County, North Carolina. The heat treat line will have an estimated annual capacity of 120,000 tons and will have the ability to produce heat treated plate from 3/16” through 2” thick. Total cost of the project is expected to be approximately $110 million.

Nucor’s plate mill in Hertford County, North Carolina, has an annual capacity of approximately 1.6 million tons. Combined with Nucor’s plate mill located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Nucor’s current annual plate production capacity is approximately 2.8 million tons.

Sukut Construction hires geotechnical expert

Sukut Construction Inc., announced the hiring of Ron Bane, a recognized expert in geotechnical construction. He will lead the company’s expansion into the growing field of seismic retrofitting and ground reinforcement of the nation’s aging infrastructure, including dams and levees.

Bane is one of the few experienced geotechnical project managers in the field, and his arrival positions Sukut to join a handful of companies nationwide, capable of meeting the need for infrastructure retrofit, highlighted most recently by the 2005 breach of levees in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and the current Midwest flooding crisis along the Mississippi River.

Bane initially will focus on Sukut’s $54.6 million contract to seismically retrofit the San Pablo Dam in Contra Costa County, California. As senior construction and quality control manager, Bane will be in charge of the two-year project.

Bane comes to Sukut from the American subsidiary of a Japanese geotechnical firm. His recent projects included seismic upgrades of two dams in South Carolina, and an underground seepage control retrofitting of the Waterbury Dam in Waterbury, Vermont, both sponsored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Bane has managed construction and quality control for more than 200 major earthwork projects and has 10 years of experience in deep-ground improvement, including the cement deep soil mixing that will be performed on the San Pablo Dam retrofitting.

Advanced Disposal acquires Attaway Waste

Advanced Disposal Services based in Jacksonville, Florida, has acquired Attaway Waste Services, a Milledgeville, Georgia-based business.

This acquisition will add customers and bridges the gap between adjacent markets in Augusta and Macon, Georgia. Attaway has collection and transfer operations in six Georgia counties. “By consolidating operations between the I-20 and I-16 corridors, Advanced Disposal is better prepared to meet the solid waste collection and disposal needs of the state for many years to come,” says Wally Hall, president and chief operating officer of Advanced Disposal.

RockTenn's CEO named 2008 CEO of the Year

RockTenn Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Rubright has been selected as this year’s RISI North American CEO of the Year for the forest products industry.

Each year, RISI surveys investment analysts and portfolio managers to make nominations for the award, based on such criteria as leadership, vision and strategic accomplishment.

The 2008 award will be presented to Rubright on September 15th at the 23rd North American Forest Products Conference in Boston, Massachusetts. Rubright will also deliver the keynote address and participate in a CEO Panel at the event.

Norcal Waste appoints new board member

Dennis Wu has joined the board of directors of Norcal Waste Systems, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco.

Wu, who retired in March 2008 as executive vice president and chief financial officer of UCBH Holdings, Incorporated (UCBH), currently serves as a director of UCBH.

Wu joined UCBH after a thirty-seven year career with the public accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche LLP, where he served as national managing partner of the firm’s Chinese Services Group since June 2000. Wu served as a partner at Deloitte & Touch LLP from 1979 to 2004, including the partner-in-charge of the firm’s Enterprise Group of Northern California.

Sapa’s Jack Miller elected to association board

Jack Miller, president, Sapa North America Extrusions, Inc., has been elected to the board of directors of The Aluminum Association.

Miller began his career with Alcoa at its Tennessee operations. He held various positions with Alcoa in both the rolling and extruding businesses, including general manager of Alcoa’s Europe Extrusions and End Products. He joined Sapa in 2007 as president, North America, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

CMC sells $500,000,000 of senior unsecured notes

Commercial Metals Company (CMC), headquartered in Irving, Texas, announced that it has sold $500 million principal amount of senior unsecured notes due 2018. The notes have a coupon rate of 7.35 percent and were sold at the offering price of $998.28 for each $1,000 of principal to yield 7.374 percent to maturity. In anticipation of the offering, CMC entered into a hedge transaction based on then existing Treasury rates, which had the effect of reducing the Company’s effective interest rate cost on the notes to approximately 7.29 percent. The notes were assigned a Baa2 rating by Moody’s Investors Service, Inc. and Standard & Poor’s assigned a BBB rating.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to repay its 6.75 percent notes due February 15, 2009, to repay commercial paper, including that incurred to fund the purchase price of recently completed acquisitions, to fund the purchase price of future acquisitions and for general corporate purposes.

Thermo Fisher receives R&D 100 award

Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. announced that is has been awarded the R&D 100 Award for technological innovation.

An independent judging panel and the editors of R&D Magazine selected the handheld Thermo Scientific Niton XL3t XRF analyzer as one of the 100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year.

This is the third R&D 100 Award for the Niton series, with previous awards coming in 1995 and 2003.

Since they were established in 1963, the R&D 100 awards have been presented annually to the 100 most innovative new technical products and processes of the year. More than 50 outside judges are chosen from among professional consultants, university faculty and industrial researchers. Based on the outside judges’ votes and written comments, the editors of R&D Magazine make the final choice.

DiMicco appointed to manufacturing council

Nucor Corporation chairman, president and chief executive officer Daniel R. DiMicco has been appointed to the United States Manufacturing Council by U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez.

The Manufacturing Council was established to ensure regular communication between the federal government and manufacturing sector. The newly appointed council consists of 14 private-sector executives who reflect the diversity of industry in company size and geography.

DiMicco has been president and chief executive officer of Nucor Corporation since 2000.

Waste Connections to buy Harold LeMay Enterprises

Waste Connections, Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire Harold LeMay Enterprises, Incorporated.

LeMay is the largest privately-owned solid waste services company in the Pacific Northwest with total annual revenue of approximately $100 million. LeMay provides solid waste collection, recycling and transfer services. The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval and receipt of local municipal consents. Closing is expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Waste Connections also announced that it has entered into an agreement with entities affiliated with LeMay to acquire the remaining interests in Pierce County Recycling, Composting and Disposal, LLC (PCRCD), a provider of solid waste disposal, transfer, recycling and composting services, which is currently a majority-owned subsidiary of Waste Connections. Upon completion of this acquisition, PCRCD will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Waste Connections.

Schnitzer Steel declares quarterly dividend

The board of directors of Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc. declared a cash dividend of $0.017 per common share, payable on September 2, 2008, to shareholders of record on August 18, 2008. Schnitzer has paid a dividend every quarter since going public in November 1993.