Dive Brief:
- El Paso,TX-based W Silver Recycling, Inc. has acquired El Paso Iron & Metal Co., as reported by the El Paso Times.
- W Silver has multiple locations throughout the Southwest and northern Mexico. The 98-year-old company recycles metal, plastic, cardboard and other materials.
- El Paso Iron & Metal specializes in scrap metal and has been open for 110 years. The company has been owned by a Houston-based family for 20 years.
Dive Insight:
W Silver has been run by the same family for years. The company's young CEO, Lane Gaddy, is a descendant of the founder and has been active in helping to redevelop downtown El Paso, as reported by the El Paso Times. This is W Silver's first acquisition in at least 10 years and will be used as a way for the company to become more involved in the scrap market. Future acquisitions beyond El Paso are also planned.
While no financial details were disclosed, Gaddy told the El Paso Times that scrap recyclers have faced many economic challenges lately due to shifting market prices and this may have been a factor in El Paso Iron & Metal's decision to sell.
Such challenges have reflected other reorganization among market players, such as Steel Dynamics, which recently acquired many select metal recycling assets from Sims Metal Management (SMM). While scrap prices had their promising days in 2016, the industry is not expected to have a "boom year," according to Spencer Johnson of INTLC FC Stone.
