THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 5, 1996 TAG: 9604050525
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 124 lines
The family owned company that once scrapped ships at Pinners Point in Portsmouth during the 1960s and early '70s is at it again.
Peck Recycling Co., formerly known as Peck Iron and Metal Co., will take delivery of a third Navy ship next week.
It started scrapping its first, the dock landing ship Plymouth Rock, several months ago. The Sierra, an old destroyer tender, is at Peck's Norfolk plant on the Elizabeth River's Southern Branch.
About 40 employees there are removing the Sierra's superstructure, draining it of oil, water and other liquids and removing other environmentally hazardous materials such as asbestos.
In about two months the stripped ship's hull will be towed to Peck Recycling's new $2.5 million ship-breaking plant on the James River in Richmond. Peck Recycling moved the Plymouth Rock there March 28.
At the Richmond site, the ship is dragged out of the water and cut into plates that are sent tosteel foundries throughout the eastern United States. The scrap is then converted into raw steel.
It's less expensive for mills and foundries to melt scrap than it is to make new steel with iron ore and coking coal.
``The hunger in the steel industry for raw material is a growing one,'' said Dan Peck, Peck Recycling vice president.
Ship scrapping in the United States should be a growth business in the next decade. The Navy and the U.S. Maritime Administration have dozens of antiquated warships and cargo vessels.
Peck Recycling is resurrecting the industry in Virginia.
``We saw this as a real opportunity for the area and the company,'' Peck said.
``As they downsize the military and cut back the fleet, there will be many opportunities,'' said David Peck, Dan's father and the company's president.
The problem with scrapping the old ships is that they are packed with the asbestos and other hazardous materials. Handling such wastes is difficult.
Until recently, the government sold many ships overseas to scrappers in such countries as Pakistan and Bangladesh, where labor was cheap and environmental regulation lax.
Now the Environmental Protection Agency has banned the export of PCBs, a hazardous compound used as a lubricant and as an insulator in electrical wires that can be found throughout the ships.
PCBs, short for polychlorinated biphenyls, belong to same family of compounds as DDT. Studies have shown that PCBs and DDT have been responsible for biological disasters in the ocean ranging from reproductive failures in birds of prey to an AIDS-like immune system depression in seals and whales.
``You've got a lot of materials to be concerned about,'' said Kim Coble, senior scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. ``It's good to have reputable, conscientious groups doing this.''
``We want to sleep at night,'' Peck said. ``We're real proud of this. It's our family. It's our company. It's our reputation.''
The company asked the state Department of Environmental Quality for advice on how to set up the operation, Peck said.
``We're coming at this with tremendous attention to the details whether they're environmental or operational,'' Peck said. ``We want this to be a model operation.''
The Maritime Administration wants to scrap about 65 vessels, Michael Delpercio, director of the agency's office of ship operations.
The Navy is selling more through the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service.
``There will be plenty to keep us busy,'' Peck said, adding that the company is bidding on at least 10 other ships this year.
Peck Recycling bought the Sierra for about $250,000. The ship will yield about 10,000 tons of scrap steel, worth much more than the purchase price, Peck said.
But it will be costly to break the vessel, cut its steel down to marketable size and meet environmental regulations. Peck Recycling probably won't start turning a profit until it breaks a few more ships and learns how to best do it.
``This is real swords into plowshares,'' Peck said. ``These are fighting ships that are being turned into resources for the 21st century.''
Peck Recycling set up a new subsidiary known as James River Ventures Inc. to buy ships, scrap them and sell the steel.
Peck Recycling began as Peck Iron and Metal in Portsmouth, founded by Julius Peck in 1945. Julius Peck, Dan Peck's grandfather, still lives in Norfolk with his wife, Bess, whose name adorned a Norfolk landmark, the market Bessie's Place, which was torn down to make way for Harbor Park.
Peck Iron bought scrap metals from railroads, the government, shipyards and even school children that collected cans. The company salvaged whatever it could, including old propellers, and broke down the rest to be sold to mills making steel, brass and aluminum.
In the 1960s Peck Iron and Metal began scrapping surplus government ships, including World War II-era carriers and liberty ships, in Portsmouth at Pinners Point, where Portsmouth Marine Terminal sits. It stayed in ship scrapping until about 1974 when it sold that part of its business to an English company, whose operation later fizzled.
Since the 1970s Peck has grown considerably. The company recycles about 250,000 tons of steel, brass, copper, aluminum and other metals last year, generating $40 million in revenue. It employs 250 people at its scrap yards in Richmond, Woodford, Portsmouth and Norfolk.
The company recycles old cars and other stuff, including scrap from the region's shipyards. For example, it bought and cut up the superstructure from a nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser, which Newport News Shipbuilding deactivated two years ago.
At the 85-acre Richmond plant, which is adjacent to the Philip Morris factory, a machine shreds about 15,000 cars and trucks a month. It converts the old cars into fist-size balls of metal that are popular with steel mills.
The company has added 75 people to its payroll in the past six months.
Some of its current employees used to work at Peck when it was scrapping ships years ago.
``Men like Richard Collins, Harvey Brady and Calvin David all got their start here before the earlier ship scrapping operation,'' Peck said.
Those men started in the plant and worked their way up. Collins is general manager and a vice president. Brady and David are yard managers at the Norfolk plant, which is located on a defunct oil and gas tank farm.
``We manage to put people to work who in some cases have little or no skills,'' Peck said. ``We give them training, a decent wage and benefits.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
Mike Knockkett of Peck Recycling Co. removes a part of the
superstructure of the destroyer tender Sierra at the company's
Norfolk Plant on the Elizabeth River's Southern Branch
Norfolk workers will drain the Sierra of oil and water and remove
any asbestos. At Richmond, it will be carved up and sold.
KEYWORDS: SHIPYARD SCRAP METAL SALVAGING RECYCLING by CNB