pressure.  Similarly, the independent
scrap dealer is playing a diminished role,
as battery manufacturers are entering into
buy-back arrangements with retail outlets,
both as a marketing tool for new batteries
and as a means of ensuring feedstock to
their smelters and downstream
manufacturing operations.
Domestic Data Coverage
Domestic data for lead scrap are
developed by the U.S. Bureau of Mines
from voluntary monthly and annual
surveys.  The larger companies are
canvassed monthly and the smaller ones
annually. Of the 38 companies producing
secondary lead, exclusive of lead in
copper-base alloys, to which a survey
request was sent, 26 responded,
representing 80% of the total refinery
production of secondary lead. Production
and consumption for the nonrespondents
were estimated using prior-year levels
adjusted for general industry trends.
Annual Review
Legislation that would affect secondary
lead producers was reintroduced in the
U.S. House of Representatives in 1993.
The legislation, entitled 'The Lead-Based
Paint Hazard Trust Fund Act of 1993",
essentially a revamping of a 1992 bill,
proposed a unitary tax of 45 cents per
pound on all primary and secondary lead
produced domestically and imported.
The intent of this legislation was to
provide a dedicated revenue of $1 billion
per year for use in protecting against
lead-based paint hazards in accordance
with Title 10 of the Housing and
Community Development Act of 1992.
By yearend 1993, no significant
advancement of the bill had occurred.
Domestic secondary production in
1993 was estimated to have declined by
about 1.5% from a near record high in
1992. Secondary lead accounted for 73 %
of domestic lead production in 1993,
reflecting a continued high level of lead-
acid battery recycling. Battery Council
International statistics indicated that the
recycling rate for lead-acid batteries had
been 94.4% in 1992.


A significant part of the decline in
secondary production in 1993 was in the
recovery of lead by nonbattery recyclers.
These recyclers, who mainly produced
specialty alloys for such uses as solders,
brass or bronze ingots, and bearing
metals, continued to experience higher
costs and lower profit margins in their
operations.
Several industry actions occurred in
1993 that will affect lead recycling
industry capacity in the United States.
RSR Corp., Dallas, TX, announced plans
to build a new $60 million auto and
industrial lead-acid battery recycling plant
in Aiken County, SC. The facility was to
be the first greenfield lead-acid battery
recycling operation in the southeastern
United States and was to be capable of
processing 6 million batteries annually.
The source of obsolete batteries was
expected to come from an eight-State area
in the southern United States through
existing conversion agreements with
battery scrap dealers.  RSR expected
permitting and construction time for the
new facility to take from 3 to 5 years.
GNB Battery Technologies Inc.,
Atlanta, GA, announced in late 1993 that
it was suspending indefinitely plans for a
proposed greenfield secondary lead
smelter in Waynesboro, GA.     The
decision coincided with a fine that had
been levied by Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) on GNB's facility in
Columbus, GA.      In  a subsequent
agreement with EPA, the company
planned to begin installation of new
pollution control equipment at the
Columbus facility.
Refined Metals Corp., Longview, TX,
closed indefinitely its secondary smelters
in Memphis, TN, and Beech Grove, IN,
at the beginning of the year.  The
combined capacity of the two smelter
operations was about 50,000 tons per
year.
Outlook
While overall economic growth was
somewhat slower than anticipated in
1993, the automotive sector, and its
related demand for lead-acid batteries,
remained strong through 1994 and was


expected to continue as such in the short
term. Total vehicle production in the
United States rose by more than 10% to
about 10.8 million units in 1993, and
increased by another 12% in 1994.
The U.S. lead market tightened in
1994 as consumption rose by about 8%
and a shorter supply of lead pushed prices
higher.  Similar market factors are
expected to exist in the short term.
Secondary production of lead was
expected to increase to about 75% of
domestic production in this period, as
higher prices encouraged more recycling.


Tin was one of the earliest metals
known to humankind.    Tin occurs in
nature principally as the oxide mineral
cassiterite. Tin metal is commonly used
as a protective coating or as an alloying
metal with other metals.    Metal is
generally used as the starting point for
most uses of tin. The major uses for tin
are as follows: cans and containers, 32%;
electrical, 22%; construction, 10%; and
transportation, 11%; other uses account
for the remaining 25%.     Tinplating
currently uses no scrap tin, but most
other fabricated end-use items, especially
solder and brass/bronze, use substantial
quantities of tin scrap.
About 25% of the domestic supply of
tin metal is metal recovered from both
new and old tin scrap. In 1993, 11,700
tons of metal valued at an estimated $90
million was recovered from new and old
tin scrap.
Old tin scrap is collected at hundreds
of domestic scrap yards, at nine tinplate
and can detinning plants, and at most
municipal collection centers. New tin
scrap is generated mainly in the tin mills
at six steel plants, numerous brass and
bronze    plants,   and   numerous
soldermaking plants.
Detinning facilities are unique to the
tin scrap industry, in that no other major
metal industry has such large-scale
facilities to remove plated metal. There
are nine domestic detinning plants
scattered across the country. Until about
1989, they processed almost solely new
tinplate scrap that originated in the tin


RECYCLING-NONFERROUS METALS-1993




IT*r


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