THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 25, 1995 TAG: 9508250683
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
United Winner Metals Inc. plans to build a $10 million scrap-metal shredding plant somewhere in Hampton Roads, company officials said.
``We have a site, we just don't know which one,'' said president Stuart A. Kroll.
The Chesapeake scrap metal exporter is looking at sites in Newport News, Chesapeake and Suffolk for the facility, which would employ 30, Kroll said.
The three-year-old company is also considering its current facility on the Elizabeth River's Southern Branch, but there's not really enough room there, Kroll said.
United Winner will select a site by November and get it running next year, he said. The company has already ordered a German-made shredder, which can grind autos and large appliances into fist-sized chunks of metal.
The company exports tons of scrap metal a year to foreign steel mills, which recycle it into steel. Bulk ships tie up at its terminals, and cranes dump the scrap metal into their holds.
United Winner is the only scrap-metal exporter in Hampton Roads, and scrap was the port of Hampton Roads' seventh-largest export in 1994, accounting for 182,395 tons of shipments.
Kroll predicts scrap exports will be 300,000 tons this year. ``The demand for scrap right now worldwide is incredible,'' he said.
And demand continues. Nucor Corp. is building a steel mill in South Carolina that will need 1 million tons of scrap a year, Kroll said.
And there's plenty being produced here. United Winner gets excess steel from shipyards. It buys old rails from railroads. The Southeastern Public Service Authority sells it tons of metal scrap discarded from Tidewater households.
United Winner also buys scrap from other scrap shredders, including Jacobson Metal Co., its neighbor in Chesapeake.
The company also exports scrap from terminals in New York and New Jersey, and just opened an exporting terminal in Tampa, Fla.
The company is owned by Stanley Tseng of Virginia Beach and a Taiwanese steel mill.
The young company has had run-ins with the city of Chesapeake and the Army Corps of Engineers over zoning, permits, wetlands and water pollution.
Chesapeake sued United Winner last year, saying the company violated its zoning and wetlands protection laws. The suit was settled after United Winner posted a bond to pay for a storm-water retention pond and met some other minor requirements, Kroll said.
``We're watching them to make sure there are no future violations. . . .,'' said Ronald Hallman, Chesapeake's city attorney. ``Things seem to be going well now.''
Construction of the pond has been held up by the Army Corps of Engineers, which has to issue a permit for United Winner to fill wetlands for the pond.
``They've got a violation down there that we're in the process of resolving with them,'' said Greg Culpeper, an environmental scientist in the Corps' Norfolk office.
The violation of the Clean Water Act that is holding up the permit stems from some scrap falling into the river while it was being loaded for export.
Kroll calls the spillage unintentional and says it is cleaned up when it happens. ``We're doing everything we can to avoid it,'' Kroll said. ``Occasionally it happens.''
The Corps of Engineers wants to find a resolution. ``The Corps has no interest in shutting any business down,'' Culpeper said. ``We try to work with people on the river to get them into compliance.'' by CNB