BIR divisions reveal guest topics for October convention

The Netherlands – Two of the main divisions within BIR have announced the formats for their plenary meetings at the world recycling association’€™s convention in Amsterdam on October 24-25.

At the non-ferrous metals division gathering on the first day, a panel of three guest speakers will discuss global copper and aluminium market trends following a short individual presentation.

Christian Schirmeister, senior member of the client liaison team at Amalgamated Metal Trading in the UK, will talk about ‘Trading at the London Metal Exchange’; Holger Ellmann, a founding partner of Argentum Metal Management in Germany, will provide an aluminium outlook and address the question ‘Rosy future driven by strong fundamentals or continuation of an oversupplied global market?’; and Mark Lewon of Utah Metal Works in the USA, current national chair of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, will give his views on copper and aluminium supply and demand.

The following day, BIR ferrous division delegates will hear a presentation from Curtis Zhu of the steel market service team at leading research and consultancy group Wood Mackenzie. The title of his speech is ‘Chinese steel industry: past, present and future’.

The BIR plastics committee continues to bring the issue of plastics from shredders centre-stage, with a guest presentation from Arie De Jong, ceo of Netherlands-based Auto Recycling Nederland (ARN). De Jong will talk about the achievements and challenges in end-of-life vehicles recycling.