Equipment association to host January 2023 AED Summit in Chicago.

The Illinois-based Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) organization is hosting the 2023 AED Summit at the Hyatt Regency Chicago from Jan. 10-12.

AED, which also co-hosts ConExpo-Con/Agg every three years in Las Vegas, says its summit brings together “thousands of professionals” involved in the heavy equipment sector as distributors, manufacturers and service providers. “Each year, more than 500 companies attend and participate in Summit,” AED says.

The organization says dealers attend to find new products to distribute and to network with industry peers while manufacturers meet with their existing dealers and with new potential dealers.

Private meetings rooms can be booked for manufacturer-dealer negotiations while the CONference Dealer EXpo (CONDEX) provides a chance for attendees to meet in a more public setting.

More information on the 2023 AED Summit can be found here.

The plant features a 2612V Vari-Vibe high-frequency screen, which uses a rotary tensioning system that allows quick screen media changes on the market.

Astec Industries’ Materials Solutions Group, an equipment manufacturer for asphalt road building, aggregate processing and more based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, recently launched a mobile high-frequency screening plant called the GT2612V.   

The plant features a 2612V Vari-Vibe high-frequency screen. The two-deck screen uses a rotary tensioning system that allows for quick screen media changes on the market, giving producers more uptime. The 2612V also has deck-mounted, variable speed hydraulic vibrators, a hydraulic mechanism for varying operating angles, a fines collecting hopper, top and bottom deck discharge chutes and an aggregate spreader. The screen can quickly and efficiently size crushed stone, recycled asphalt pavement, sand, gravel, coal and more.  

The mobile GT2612V is manufactured on a heavy-duty, welded steel main frame with a channel cross-section. The company says a walkway around the screen and remote grease lubrication for ground-level access make maintenance simple.   

The plant includes a large hopper with a capacity of eight cubic yards that is equipped with 6-inch sloped grizzly openings and a remote tipping grid. The hopper also includes foldable wings and hydraulic support legs. The variable-speed, 48-inch-wide belt feeder features a high-torque hydraulic drive, full-length impact bed, rubber lagged head pulley and self-cleaning wing tail pulley.   

The screen plant is equipped with four conveyors, including a delivery conveyor, two side conveyors and a fines conveyor. All conveyors feature a variable-speed hydraulic drive and easily fold for transport.   

The GT2612V is powered by a Caterpillar Tier 4 Final, 136 horsepower engine, while engine-mounted mounted hydraulic pumps operate all plant functions. The plant includes a PLC control system with pendant remote controls for the tracks.   

Additional options for the GT2612V mobile plant include engine alternatives like the Caterpillar Tier 3 and Stage V, 15-foot hopper/feeder in lieu of standard for additional capacity, heavier-duty grizzly section with replaceable grouser bar cartridge and more. 

Magnetic equipment firm also adds communication tool for prospective customers.

Maple Heights, Ohio-based Ohio Magnetics, a maker of lifting and separating magnet equipment, says it has redesigned its website in part to accentuate the breadth of its product line.

On the redesigned site, Ohio Magnetics says its products are categorized so current and prospective customers can “quickly find all the available options.” According to the firm, new website content includes product and application images and videos as well as updated product specification tables.

“Our new website was designed to help customers easily find details about our magnet systems,” says Tim Schuh, Ohio Magnetics sales manager. “We also added a new communication tool to quickly reach our team with product inquiries and other questions.”

Ohio Magnetic product pages include several for lifting magnets, including those designed to handle scrap or finished steel; several types of magnetic separation equipment, including suspended pulley and drum magnets; and magnet controllers and related items. Information on the company’s parts and service and “remag program” also is available on the website.

Ohio Magnetics is a portfolio company of Dublin, Ohio-based HBD Industries Inc., which describes itself as a privately held diversified manufacturer of industrial products, including alloy components, industrial rubber products and power transmission equipment.?

Mill purchases tracked by RMDAS show ferrous shred exceeding prompt grades in value in one region.

This May, steel mills on average were paying $185 more per ton for prime or prompt ferrous scrap compared with one ton of ferrous shred. Just three months later, that cavernous gap has disappeared, with most of the premium vanishing in July and August.

Mill scrap purchases tracked by the Raw Material Data Aggregation Service (RMDAS) of Pittsburgh-based MSA Inc. from July 20 to Aug. 19 show mills on average paying just $9 per ton more for the RMDAS prompt industrial composite grade compared with No. 2 shredded scrap.

In the RMDAS South region, the value of shredded scrap, at $425 per ton, actually exceeded the $418 per ton mills paid for prompt grades. The loss of a premium for prompt scrap has not been seen since the COVID-19-restrictions era of March and April 2020.

A drop in obsolete (shredder feedstock) scrap generation likely is playing a role, as is increased overseas demand from buyers who bid almost exclusively for shred and heavy melting steel (HMS) rather than prompt scrap. Efforts to upgrade the quality and chemistry of shredded scrap also could be a factor.

On the scrap generation side, lower scale prices combined with unpleasantly hot weather has tempered the enthusiasm of peddlers, leading to restricted scrap flows into some yards. Nathan Fruchter of New York-based Idoru Trading characterizes the peddler dilemma this way: “Extreme heat is offering a disincentive for some scrap collection. With high truck fuel prices, it costs the collector much more to gather in his scrap and bring it to yards. For what? Just to bring it to a yard and see a low scale price?”

On the demand side, buyers from India have stayed in the market throughout the spring and summer, while some other overseas buyers of shred and HMS might be returning to shop around at U.S. ports. Fruchter says, “Recent U.S. East Coast export activity may be what is needed to help ferrous scrap pricing rise from its recent drop. Export sales were weak in July; I would even venture to say close to nonexistent, with Turkish buyers practically abstaining from any buying. As August began, these buyers realized they had stayed out of the buying arena for far too long, so they needed to buy.”

The Turkish economy, however, remains a source of wider concern. In late August, metals information service Davis Index is reporting buyers from Turkish mills are again pulling back from the market, tied to concerns about “challenging” finished steel product sales.

In the domestic mill market, a sustained surge in prompt grade prices has provided momentum to long-lasting efforts by shredding plant operators, sorting technology providers and some mill buyers to boost shred as a substitute for prime grades.

Among mill buyers, Indiana-based Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) has gone on the record with its desire to melt more shredded scrap. “In the last 18 months, our recycling and steel teams have worked closely in developing a higher quality shredded scrap that can be used in place of prime scrap,” SDI Chair, President and CEO Mark D. Millett told industry analysts this spring.

SDI Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Theresa Wagler has reiterated the firm’s commitment to the strategy, telling Recycling Today SDI continues to work with its own OmniSource business unit and other scrap suppliers to upgrade ferrous shred to produce a grade she says is “almost like a prime type of shred.”

As the summer winds down, scrap processors will be anxious to see if the overall downward ferrous scrap pricing trend can be reversed in September. Although the $284 per ton plunge in prompt scrap pricing since May could be the most noticeable aspect of the market, August also marked the third straight month in which all grades dropped in price.

Yet to be seen is whether difficulties in accessing scrap exported from Europe, where low Rhine River water levels are slowing barge traffic, will result in increased interest in U.S. scrap from overseas buyers.

Ritchie Bros. August Market Trends Report shows declining excavator and truck pricing in the U.S.

Texas-based equipment auction firm Ritchie Bros. says its tracking indicates median prices for large excavators in the United States are down 9 percent year over year, while mini excavator prices declined 5 percent in the last 90 days.

The overall Ritchie Bros. individual mix-adjusted industry indexes are still up over 2021, the firm says, but they are declining on a month-to-month basis since peak pricing achieved earlier this year. In the U.S., truck tractor pricing still leads the way, up 27 percent year over year, while vocational trucks, medium and large earthmoving prices are up 18 percent, 15 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, in Canada, the same August Market Trends Report tells a different story, with large excavator prices there up 12 percent year over year, while mini-excavator prices in the last 90 days have increased 31 percent. Truck tractor pricing is up 25 percent, while vocational trucks, medium and large earthmoving came in with 10 percent, 13 percent and 12 percent gains.

“We continue to experience year-over-year price inflation for equipment and trucks in the U.S. and Canada,” says Doug Olive, a senior vice president with Ritchie Bros. “However, as the transportation and logistics markets normalize, we have seen truck prices decline. We are seeing similar pricing trends across our other industry indexes as well, with year-over-year increases, but declining on a month-to-month basis.”

Doug Rusch, managing director of sister company Rouse Sales, adds, “Tight supply continues to be the story in the retail market, with lower-than-typical sales volumes driving strong pricing and retail values increasing 2 percent in July. Auction values for excavators have moderated a bit since June 2022. Since then, we have seen smaller class mini-excavator prices decline 6 percent to 7 percent at auction, while larger excavators have declined 2 percent.”