MMC Invests in Exurban
Mitsubishi Materials, a metals producer, recently made a calculated move by investing in an Indiana-based startup, working to construct a smelter. Plans were also released to increase the company’s e-scrap recycling capabilities in Japan by a considerable margin.
Headquartered in Tokyo, Mitsubishi Materials Corporation has become a “major investor” in Exurban. Although the dollar amount of MMC’s investment remains private, Exurban is in the process of constructing its first smelting plant in Indiana.
Not long ago, representatives from MMC shared the company’s ambitions for expanding the organizations e-scrap smelting capacity. They also touched on the potential ramifications of global trade restrictions, and heightened competition within the printed circuit board (PCB) buyer market in North America.
Exurban Shares Plans to Expand to Northeast Indiana
On March 29th, MMC revealed its investment in Exurban, which will provide the company with a seat Exurban’s board, according to a press release.
“We would like to contribute to Exurban with our technical expertise in technology for non-ferrous metals and e-scrap,” managing executive officer and president of MMC’s Metals Company, Katsuyoshi Isaji, explained in the press release.
Staffed by experts in the field of smelting, Exurban has plans to construct its first plant in northeast Indiana. This new development arrives after the company experienced a major setback when its original proposition to purchase land in Fort Wayne, Ind. to build a smelter fell through.
It is projected that the northeastern Indiana facility will require hundreds of millions of dollars to complete, and will be equipped to take in e-scrap, as well as other metallic scrap, for refining into pure metals that will be used for resale.
A “Strategic Alliance”
MMC and the Exurban Group have entered a “strategic alliance” which will see MMC as “an important partner to the Exurban Group as it moves towards the financing, construction and operation of its first proposed facility in the United States,” the press release outlined.
Stefan Boel, chairman of Exurban, stated that the agreement between Exurban and Mitsubishi Materials Corporation is a sign of a promising partnership. “Mitsubishi Materials Corporation is a world leader in recycling,” he said.
This transaction is only one of many instances where an Asian firm with a presence in mining, smelting and refining has invested in a U.S. e-scrap organization.
A year ago, Korea Zinc, a Seoul-based metals company, sealed a $442 million acquisition of Igneo Technologies. Igneo is currently constructing an $85 million metals recovery plant in Georgia, and additionally owns evTerra Recycling, which operates various e-scrap processing centers throughout the United States.
Also last year, a momentous event occurred within the e-scrap sector when JX Nippon Mining and Metals, a Japanese firm, purchased eCycle Solutions, one of Canada’s biggest e-scrap companies.
MMC Restructures the Company
MMC has also announced a bold management strategy designed to restructure the company, and significantly boost its e-scrap recycling capabilities. According to the statement, these enhancements will be attained by 2031 with a target of a 50% increase.
The restructuring of corporate operations was enacted beginning on April 1st to strengthen the organizations resource recycling division. The reorganization merged its metallurgy recyclable unit with its scrap appliance, auto and electronics dismantling sector, combining all branches into one entity.
According to Tatsuya Inoue, the General Manager of MMC’s newly formed Resource Circulation Division, there had been inconsistencies arising because e-waste processing, metals smelting and refining operations were in separate locations.
“To avoid those inconsistencies, these business units shall be merged into the metals business company,” he stated. “And with this, we firmly believe that we can expand our resource recycling business.”
As part of its “Medium-Term Management Strategy 2031,” MMC is creating a plan to broaden the regions, scale, and scope of its recycling operations. The company has two Japan-based smelters that recover metals from PCBs. These include the Naoshima Smelter and Refinery, and the Onahama Smelter and Refinery.
Smelter Capacities Not Yet Reached
MMC’s Metals Company has seen a steady yearly intake of around 120,000 to 130,000 metric tons of e-scrap, according to Mamoru Takatsugu, assistant general manager of the Recycling Business’ Department in the metallurgic unit. However, he shared that the smelters actually have a combined receiving capacity of 160,000 metric tons of e-scrap each year.
By 2031, MMC hopes to increase the smelters’ capacity to a total of 240,000 metric tons. This figure is 50% greater than its current capacity, and almost double what MMC currently recycles annually.
At a 2021 E-Scrap and E-Reuse Conference in Chicago, Tetsuro Sakai, president of the Metals Company, unveiled a revised plan to increase its recycling capacity by 25%. As compared to earlier goals, this proposal calls for more aggressive growth, raising output from 160,000 metric tons to 200,000 metric tons by 2030.
To kick off the company’s growth initiatives, MMC has announced a small expansion of its e-scrap recycling capabilities at the Onahama smelter. Takatsugu reported that improvements are being made within the receiving areas, which have limited capacity, and are causing delays. He disclosed that the project should be finished by October 2023.
Also, to bolster the pipeline supplying the smelters, MMC has invested in a joint venture with Hanwa. The collaboration has additionally included MM Metal Recycling, an e-scrap recycling plant located in the Netherlands, that sends printed circuit boards to Japan for metals recovery. This operation underwent considerable enlargement last year, with more warehouses being constructed, along with an increase of its yearly capacity up to 48,000 metric tons.
Lingering Global Trade Complications
Highlighting the increasing necessity for access to critical metals, Inoue noted that MMC is expanding its capacity for recycling secondary materials. His goal is to have “more metals from secondary material and less from natural resources.”
“We are now aiming to expand to receive more e-scrap and copper scraps at Naoshima to have [a greater] ratio from secondary materials,” he stated.
During a discussion with E-Scrap News, Takatsugu and Inoue acknowledged that fluctuations in global trade laws have caused an unpredictable landscape when it comes to obtaining PCBs from foreign countries.
Takatsugu drew attention to a modification of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. This amendment, which was introduced by Switzerland and Ghana in 2020, was accepted by parties at the convention two years later in 2022. The alteration contained new stipulations and processes applicable to shipments of PCBs destined for Japan.
As he pointed out, MMC must stay diligent regarding its smelting endeavors and should remain adaptable to the modifications that may arise. According to Inoue, it is becoming evident that the PCB market is no longer a worldwide trade, but rather a regional one; broken up into specific sectors such as North America and the Euro zone, etc. This knowledge was included in the firm’s Medium-Term Management Plan 2031.
“We must keep watching carefully what’s going on in this circular economy industry, where the material shall be consumed regionally,” Inoue commented. “It’s getting more difficult to trade globally.”
An Incredibly Competitive Market
Acknowledging the hardships faced in North America, Takatsugu recognized that purchasing PCBs has become highly competitive. This is due to large amounts of smelters, and Chinese buyers who are sending PCBs to Southeast Asia for recycling.
In addition to international competition, the domestic market is also threatened by new plants being built in the United States. For example, Igneo and Aurubis are both constructing metals recovery facilities in Georgia that will use scrap circuit boards as a resource.
Mitsubishi Materials Corporation is optimistic regarding the future of e-scrap supplies, particularly in Japan, South and Southeast Asia and Australia. Stressing the importance of flexibility, he conceded that MMC must be prepared to expand its sourcing opportunities to expand in the coming years.
“The point is we must be flexible and deal with those market situations more quickly,” he confirmed.
