Scrap metal
Continuing to pursue opportunities for diversification in the 1970s, SHV eyes the scrap metal sector. Metal recycling is developing on an industrial scale – especially in the USA. In 1975, SHV acquires David J. Joseph Company. In so doing, it gains a stake in the industry as well as a foothold in the huge north American market. Over the next quarter of a century, the company expands into a billion dollar operation.
A car for everyone
From the 1960s onwards, cars are becoming affordable for more and more people. Traffic jams are now a common sight. Even the two oil crises of the 1970s can’t stop this rising popularity: ever cheaper to buy and increasingly easy to replace in line with the latest style, vehicle lifecycles are decreasing proportionately.
Discarded cars end their lives in the fast-growing cemeteries of scrap yards. In the USA, this has resulted in a booming scrap metal industry: recycling the shells of cars and machinery into raw material for the steel industry, processed by minimills in modern electric-arc furnaces.
It’s during the 1970s that SHV looks for new and diverse opportunities – and not necessarily within the Netherlands. For a company that already specializes in the bulk transhipment of coal, a move into scrap metal is both an interesting possibility and a good fit.