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Some of Chico Scrap Metal’s neighbors hoped to move it from its long-time home.

A California scrap recycling firm has been granted permission from its city government to stay in place despite the NIMBY (not in my back yard) sentiments expressed by some neighboring property owners.

The near-term fate of Chico Scrap Metal in Chico, California, was decided at a Tuesday, May 3, city council meeting, according to an online article from the Chico Enterprise-Record.

By a 4-3 vote, the council voted not to take action to force the scrap company to move from its home on East 20th Street in Chico. However, even some of the council representatives who voted in favor of allowing the company to stay say they would have voted differently if the city had money within its budget to help Chico Scrap Metal move to a different location.

The Enterprise-Record article provides detailed coverage of the May 3 council meeting, including remarks from Chico residents who say they believe Chico Scrap Metal is well managed, but they still would support the city if it is able to help the company move.

The future of the company remains uncertain, as the city has a master plan which calls for industrial properties such as Chico Scrap Metal to be moved.

Other residents and at least one city councilor are quoted as being less supportive of Chico Scrap Metal, with one council representative saying, “This neighborhood issue is much too important to allow Chico Scrap Metal to stay. We have given them extension after extension after extension.”

Two privately held groups have reportedly prepared bid packages for British steel mills.

Media reports indicate two groups led by two different wealthy backers are preparing bids for the British steel mill complexes being sold by India’s Tata Steel Europe subsidiary.

An online article by The Guardian says a group called Excalibur Steel, “supported by Welsh billionaire Sir Terry Matthews,” is one potential buyer while the other is Liberty House, a “metals group run by tycoon Sanjeev Gupta.”

The Guardian article refers to the Excalibur Steel bid as a “management buyout” whose bid could yet be derailed by “concerns about funding and pensions.”

The Liberty House bid, confirmed in a Reuters report, may entail a switch to more scrap-intensive electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking. The group has “plans to shift Tata Steel UK’s operations away from steelmaking in blast furnaces to recycling steel in electric arc furnaces,” according to Reuters.

The two bidders are interested in the Port Talbot steelmaking complex in Wales in the United Kingdom, which produces slab, hot-rolled, cold-rolled and galvanised coiled steel. The Tata Europe operations in the U.K. are said to affect some 40,000 jobs in a larger supply chain, according to The Guardian.

A successful bidder is likely to work in cooperation with the British government, which has said it will support efforts to keep the steelmaking complex open.  

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