Ferrous Scrap

Gerdau to buy Dale's Recycling ops for $60M

Written by Laura Miller

September 20, 2024

Gerdau Long Steel North America plans to acquire Dale’s Recycling Partnership, a Tennessee-based operator and processor of ferrous scrap.

Sao Paulo, Brazil-based longs producer Gerdau SA announced that its US subsidiary has signed an agreement to purchase the land, inventory, and fixed assets of Dale’s operations for $60 million.

The deal includes Dale’s seven recycling centers in Tennessee, one in Kentucky, and one in Missouri.

According to Dale’s website, the family-owned business has been in operation since 1983 when current owner Dale Nelson Sr. founded it.

“This acquisition aims to increase capture of captive ferrous scrap by Gerdau through proprietary channels, supplying raw material to its operations at a competitive cost,” Gerdau SA said in an official notice to the market on Wednesday, Sept. 18.

The company expects the transaction to close by the end of this year.

“The yards will predominantly supply ferrous scrap to our mill in Jackson, Tenn.,” a Gerdau spokesperson told SMU in an email. In fact, one of Dale’s yards is just a mile away from the Jackson mill, which produces merchant bar, SBQ, and rebar products.

Gerdau completed a project to upgrade the plant’s rolling mill, roll shop, warehouse, and conveyer earlier this year. “The investment expanded the mill’s merchant bar product range and operational competitiveness, while improving the flexibility of Gerdau’s network of mills,” according to the spokesperson.

Gerdau’s Metals Recycling group currently operates 24 scrap yards and four shredders in the US and Canada. Upon closing the deal with Dale’s, it will run nine additional yards.

Gerdau Long Steel North America, formerly known as Gerdau Ameristeel, is a Tampa, Fla.-based longs steel producer and metals recycler. It produces various steel products, including merchant bar, rebar, structural steel, piling, and wide-flange beams.

Laura Miller

Laura Miller is a reporter and editor for Steel Market Update. She has held a variety of positions within the steel industry since 2007, including reporting and editing for Steel Business Briefing/Platts, the Association for Iron and Steel Technology, and Kallanish Commodities, as well as marketing for what was then known as ThyssenKrupp Steel USA (now AM/NS Calvert). After a five-year hiatus working across other industries, she returned to steel in 2021 and has covered the flat rolled, tubular, and trade areas of the industry. She is a member of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries and a past-president of the AWMI Pittsburgh Chapter. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at laura@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7869.

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