Top 10 U.S. Scrap Industry Companies in 2025: Market Dynamics Furthering Ecological Responsibility
RELEASE DATE: Aug 2024 Author: Spherical Insights Request Free Sample
Recyclable items, typically metals, that remain after products are manufactured and consumed are called scrap. Examples of scrap include automobile components, construction supplies, and excess materials. In addition to consuming a lot less energy and contributing to the creation of a circular or more sustainable economy, the scrap recycling sector creates a large number of employments.
Advancements in the United States Scrap Industry
The US market comprises some of the leading companies in the scrap industry, such as Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc., Sims Metal Management, Nucor Corporation, Commercial Metals Company, and Alter Trading Corporation. Prominent market players are heavily investing in R&D to expand their product ranges, which will spur further growth in the United States scrap industry. For instance, in July 2022, The Board of Directors of Steel Dynamics, Inc. has given the business permission to build and run a 650,000-ton low-carbon recycled aluminum flat rolled mill, together with two auxiliary satellite recycled aluminum slab centers.
A sustainable and circular economy is also developed through recycling scrap, which also creates jobs and boosts economic growth. Over 110 billion dollars in economic activity and 532,000 employments are supported by the scrap recycling industry in the United States alone, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Insights and Projections: United States Scrap Market Analysis
The report provides a summary of the global top trends and future prospects for the global United States scrap market based on historical data sets (current trends, industry statistics, and emerging trends shaping the United States scrap industry’s future, preliminary estimates from 2020-2021, 2022, and 2023), as well as projections for the global United States scrap trends and future prospects for global regions in 2024 and 2025. This data-driven research offers users an industry-wide view of emerging technologies and innovative insights to help them make critical business decisions.
Growth Factors and Emerging Trends in the United States Scrap Industry
1. Developing a sustainable economy to increase the need for metal recycling
The linear economy is being impacted by increasing metal consumption, which is also having an impact on the environment, resulting in things like biodiversity loss, water and air pollution, declining ore grades, price increases, and resource shortages. Consequently, there is a growing need to transition to a productive circular economy model. Metals may be recycled endlessly because of their special qualities. Metal products can be mechanically treated and reprocessed even at the end-of-life (EoL) stage. They can also be reintroduced into the process of producing new metals. Metal recycling therefore completes the circle of production, which lowers the quantity of primary raw materials needed as well as waste that frequently ends up in landfills.
2. Economic gains and technological developments in recycling
Technological developments have significantly increased the scrap market's productivity and profitability. The recycling process has been enhanced by advances in sorting and processing equipment, such as sophisticated metal shredders and automated separation systems. Roughly 90% of metals may now be recycled from scrap, according to the International Resource Panel, an expert committee under the United Nations. This greatly reduces the need for basic raw materials. The economic sustainability of recycling operations is increased by these technological advancements that make it possible to recover valuable elements from complex waste streams. Furthermore, one of the main forces for the scrap market's expansion is its financial benefits. Industries can save money by reducing the requirement for expensive virgin resource extraction when leftover materials are recycled.
Opportunities and Future Prospects in the United States Scrap Industry
- Growing need for raw materials for scrap by the steel industry
For the manufacture of new steel and cast-iron goods, iron and steel scrap are essential raw materials. The United States' steel and foundry sectors rely heavily on readily available scrap from manufacturing processes and from the recovery of goods that are no longer needed or used. Steel scrap has been recycled by the steel industry for over 150 years. Recycling steel scrap saves energy, raw resources, and landfill space. Millions of metric tons of recycled steel cans, vehicles, appliances, building supplies, and other steel items are produced annually in the domestic steel industry. The car is the main producer of outdated steel. Compared to the process of turning iron ore into steel and other goods, the remelting of scrap uses a lot less energy. By remelting iron and steel scrap, the amount of waste that ends up in landfills is decreased, and the environment is kept free of abandoned steel products.
List of Key Companies in the United States Scrap Industry
- Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc.
- Sims Metal Management
- Nucor Corporation
- Commercial Metals Company
- Alter Trading Corporation
- Steel Dynamics, Inc.
- Gerdau
- OmniSource Corporation
- Metalico, Inc.
- Ferrous Processing & Trading Co
Top 5 Players in the United States Scrap Industry
1. Oregon, United States
Headquarters: Portland, Oregon
Schnitzer is a worldwide leader in metal reimbursement, processing, and sales. Schnitzer Steel obtains raw materials via established local supply networks that gather scrap from both big and small companies as well as private citizens. The company recycles a variety of metals, including lead, copper, zinc, stainless steel, iron, and steel. The US city of Portland, Oregon, is home to Schnitzer Steel's headquarters. Since its establishment in 1906, Schnitzer has developed into a prominent player in the world of metal recycling due to a mix of in-house investments and acquisitions that have given us access to cutting-edge information, production, and processing technologies. In order to efficiently transport processed scrap metal to steel mills and foundries worldwide, Schnitzer currently runs 95 recycling facilities, including seven deep sea ports on the coasts of both the United States and Puerto Rico.
2. Sims Limited
Headquarters: New York, United States
The worldwide environmental services company Sims Limited (previously Sims Metal Management Limited) operates through several divisions, with a concentration on enterprise data destruction and cloud asset management, ferrous and non-ferrous metal recycling, and cloud asset management, recycling and reusing post-consumer electronics, recycling municipal garbage, gas to energy, and recycling waste to energy. Established in 1917, its principal activities are situated in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Additionally, the organization offers ecologically friendly options for the recycling and reuse of IT assets and post-consumer electronics. Furthermore, it offers additional services like stevedoring and other sources of supply in addition to secondary processing.
3. Nucor Corporation
Headquarters: North Carolina, United States
The Nucor Corporation is a steel manufacturing manufacturer. Steel and alloyed steel, steel joints, steel board, cold-finished steel, steel grinder balls, steel bearing goods, and steel structures are among the company's offerings. Along with processing ferrous and nonferrous metals, pig iron, and hot briquetted iron, the company also manufactures direct reduced iron, which is utilized in steel mills. Nucor Corp is a steel and steel product manufacturer. For use in its steel mills, the company also produces direct reduced iron. Among the activities are foreign sales and trading firms that purchase and sell steel as well as steel products made by the business and other enterprises. Ferrous and nonferrous metals, as well as direct reduced iron, are included in the Raw Materials section. Ransom E. Olds established the business in 1905, and its main office is in Charlotte, North Carolina.
4. Commercial Metals Company
Headquarters: Texas, United States
Texas-based Commercial Metals Company (CMC) manufactures rebar and other materials for the building sector. As one of the two main providers of steel used to reinforce concrete in American buildings, bridges, highways, and infrastructure, it is alongside Nucor. The business also owns Tensar, a manufacturer of foundation systems for building public works projects, commercial buildings, and highways. In addition to distributing steel and metal goods, it offers associated services. It refines scrap metal so that producers of new metal goods can use it as a raw material. In the US, Poland, China, and other countries, Commercial Metals Company produces, recycles, and fabricates steel and metal products in addition to providing associated supplies and services. It is divided into two sections: North America and Europe.
5. Steel Dynamics
Headquarters: Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.
In the US, Steel Dynamics, Inc. and its subsidiaries engage in the production of steel and the recycling of metal. American steel manufacturer Dynamics, Inc. (SDI) is situated in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The corporation is the third-biggest manufacturer of carbon steel products in the United States, with a manufacturing capacity of 13 million tons of steel. The company's steel operations, aluminum operations sector, steel fabrication activities, and metal recycling operations are among its segments. From the steel operations segment, it produces the most revenue. Its metals recycling business also provides transportation, marketing, brokerage, processing, and scrap management services for both ferrous and nonferrous scrap metal. The business sells to steel processors, service centers, and businesses in the manufacturing, construction, and automobile sectors. 1993 saw the founding of Steel Dynamics, which went public in 1996.
Recent Development
- In August 2024, leading global recycler of metals, Sims Metal, stated that it has reached an agreement to buy the assets of Baltimore Scrap Corp (BSC), a metal recycler located in the United States, and its related companies.
- In August 2023, at the end of July, the US steel producer and metal processor Schnitzer Steel Industry announced that the business would now go by the name Radius Recycling.
- In April 2023, in the US, Johnson Controls and Nucor have started a closed-loop steel recycling collaboration venture.
- In April 2023, Roane Metals Group LLC ("Roane"), a firm that recycles metal, announced that Commercial Metals firm (NYSE: CMC) ("CMC") has acquired all of its assets. Roane has two sites in Tennessee where it can process about 85,000 tons of ferrous and non-ferrous materials a year.
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