Korea Zinc Inc., one of the world’s largest lead and zinc smelters, acquired Kataman Metals LLC, a U.S.-based scrap metal trading company, at $55 million to expand the recycling business, its new growth driver. Korea Zinc said it has completed the acquisition of Kataman’s 100% stake through its U.S. subsidiary Pedalpoint Holdings LLC while assuming the trading house’s debt of 269.5 billion won ($199.6 million).
Korea Zinc aims to stably procure materials including scrap metals for its recycling business, which extracts valuable ingredients such as copper through the takeover of Kataman, which has been building a nationwide network with US scrap traders. Global recycling companies seek stable procurements of waste. “The local network in the US is one of its core assets,” said a Korea Zinc official in Seoul.
Kataman buys and sells about 300,000 tons of scrap metals such as waste copper and aluminum. Its annual trading value averaged about $1.5 billion during the recent three years.