Tung Tai operates seven nonferrous yards in China. Tung Tai owns four of the yards and the other three are part of a joint venture with the Chinese government. The newest yard was opened this year in Nanhai, and is the largest one in the Tung Tai group. In addition to the Shenzhen and Nanhai operations, there are yards in Dali, Ningbo, Shanghai, Tianjin and Shenyang. “We started with less than 100 workers in the first yard,” says John. “Today, we employ between 1,700 and 2,000 workers, depending on market conditions and the types of material being processed, at the seven yards.”Each yard typically has a general manager, an assistant manager, from three to five yard managers, as many as ten section chiefs and support staff. Each of the section chiefs is responsible for a particular area such as quality control, container reports, security, electronics and scales.
Tung Tai’s operations currently process all grades of nonferrous metals. This includes almost all copper items, aluminum, brass and precious metals. But John emphasizes Tung Tai’s yards are labor-intensive businesses and they handle items often scorned by scrap operations in the U.S. This includes nonferrous shredded residue from the world’s shredders. The largest amount of material is from electronic and computer scrap and discarded equipment. To extract metals from these sources is extremely labor intensive, explains John. Therefore, in the U.S. it is not always cost-effective. Not so in China where labor costs ($2.00 per day per worker) are significantly lower. The type of material processed is dictated by the demands of the Chinese government. All material is dismantled as much as possible and sorted into different grades. The material is made into loose bundles or briquettes and prepared for melting. Tung Tai’s operations are equipped with small shredders to process circuit boards. Two to three people operate these shredders. Water separation equipment is used also to process circuit boards. Strippers and chopping machines process insulated wire.
Tung Tai’s yards are also equipped with the usual equipment – forklifts, skid steers, cranes and loaders – found at most scrap yards. Finished product includes cathode and coil from copper, ingot from aluminum and rolls and plates from brass. On a monthly basis Tung Tai processes 250 to 280 containers, each weighing approximately 40,000 pounds. Tung Tai shipped less than 100 containers per month when it first started in China. In recent years Tung Tai has consistently shipped from 2,500 to 3,000 containers per year. Tung Tai uses four shipping lines based in Korea and other Asian countries.