SUNSHINE RecycleFlash Weekly: September 22-26, 2025

September 26, 2025

Zinc Futures Fall on Possible EU Tariffs

Zinc futures fell to around $2,890 on September 26 after reaching a near six-month high earlier in the month amid reports that the European Commission plans to impose steep tariffs—ranging from 25% to 50%—on Chinese steel imports and related products in the coming weeks. The move aims to curb steel imports and protect Europe’s domestic producers, as global overcapacity has been straining profit margins and hindering investment in decarbonization efforts across the continent’s steel industry. Since zinc is predominantly utilized to coat and protect steel from corrosion, any reduction in Chinese steel production resulting from these tariffs could substantially diminish zinc demand. Should China produce less steel due to limited access to the European market, its demand for zinc is likely to decrease, exerting downward pressure on its prices. (Source: Trading Economics)

Silver Price Forecast: XAG/USD Holds Above $45.00 Near Fresh 14-Year Highs

Silver price (XAG/USD) remains near a new 14-year high of $45.29 reached on Friday, trading around $45.20 during the early European hours. The precious metal Silver holds losses after registering nearly 3% gains in the previous session. Traders await the US August Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index data later in the day for fresh impetus. Solid economic data from the United States (US) may prompt the US Federal Reserve (Fed) to adopt a more cautious approach to deliver deeper interest rate cuts. The non-interest-bearing Silver attracts some sellers as higher interest rates could increase the opportunity cost of holding Silver. Additionally, the US Dollar (USD) gained more than 0.5%, which might have restrained the upside of the dollar-denominated commodity. (Source: FXStreet)

Steel Prices Weaken on Prospect of EU Tariffs

Steel rebar futures fell to around CNY 3,060 per ton on Friday, a two-week low, after reports that the European Commission plans to impose steep tariffs of 25%–50% on Chinese steel imports and related products in the coming weeks. The measure seeks to limit inflows and protect domestic producers as global overcapacity continues to pressure margins, while Western economies also aim to preserve strategic manufacturing capacity. Meanwhile, top producer China is preparing to curb new capacity to address excess supply and weak prices. Just last month, Beijing ordered major mills to halt production as part of its pledge to tackle overcapacity in the ferrous metals sector. (Source: Trading Economics)

Iron Ore Slips as EU Targets China Steel

Iron ore futures dropped below CNY 800 per ton on Friday, hitting a two-week low after reports that the European Commission plans to impose steep tariffs of 25%–50% on Chinese steel imports and related products in the coming weeks. The move aims to curb inflows and shield domestic producers as global overcapacity continues to squeeze margins, while Western economies are also seeking to preserve strategic manufacturing capacity. At the same time, top producer China is preparing to restrict new capacity to tackle oversupply and weak prices. Some support came from restocking ahead of the National Day holiday, while prices of domestically mined iron ore concentrates continued to climb across most regions last week amid tight supply and steady demand. (Source: Trading Economics)

Zijin Gold Delays $3.2 Billion IPO as Typhoon Pummels Hong Kong

Zijin Gold International Co. delayed its $3.2 billion listing after Super Typhoon Ragasa slammed Hong Kong, bringing the city to a standstill and disrupting the company’s ability to take orders for its initial public offering. The company pushed back the listing, set to be the world’s second largest this year, by a day to Sept. 30, it said Wednesday, citing bad weather. The delay comes because of Hong Kong exchange rules that require companies to extend an IPO’s subscription period by a day if there’s a storm warning No. 8 or above between 9 a.m. and noon of the last day for retail investors to place bids. That results in subsequent steps for the deal — including the listing — being delayed by an equivalent period of time. (Source: Bloomberg News)

Aurubis Starts Production at US Copper Recycling Plant

Aurubis AG (NAFG.DE), Europe’s largest copper producer, said on Wednesday it had started production at its newly built U.S. metal recycling plant at Richmond in Georgia. The plant will reduce the need for U.S. metal imports, with production expected to reach full capacity in the first half of 2026, Aurubis said. With an investment of about $800 million, the plant will process up to 180,000 metric tons of complex waste recycling material annually, including printed circuit boards, copper cable and other metal-bearing products. (Source: Reuters)

Livium Extends Agreement with LG Energy Solution until 2029

Livium Ltd announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Envirostream Australia Pty Ltd has signed a new agreement with LG Energy Solution to recycle and process lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in Australia. This new contract further extends the scope of services from the previously expanded contract signed in March 2024. The Agreement now encompasses recycling end-of-life residential battery units collected for normal service reasons. According to the company, Envirostream has signed a new three-year agreement with LG Energy Solution to provide battery recycling and disposal services, extending the contract to March 2029; the new agreement maintains the scope and terms of the prior agreement’ in all material respects, including exclusivity for recalled residential batteries defined under the prior agreement; the new agreement also expands the scope of supply, on a non-exclusive basis, to include end-of-life residential lithium-ion batteries collected in Australia for normal service reasons. (Source: Livium Ltd)

Axium Packaging Celebrates Opening of New Brampton, Ontario Plant

Axium Packaging is celebrating the opening of its state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Brampton, Ontario. The 227,000-square-foot manufacturing facility is the third Ontario location for Axium, which was founded in the province in 2010. The new Brampton facility positions Axium to deliver faster, more sustainable packaging solutions for its customers in one of North America’s fastest-growing markets. Designed with both performance and scale in mind, the new Brampton facility is fully integrated into the company’s comprehensive enterprise resource management system and uses more than 45 packaging equipment lines for injection stretch blow molding (ISBM), extrusion blow molding (EBM), and injection molding (IM) as well as finishing and decoration. The facility holds 10 plastic resin silos, three of which house post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic. Axium uses PCR in as much as 30% of its packaging solutions, and its silo technology allows it to transition to greater PCR storage to meet rising demand. (Source: PR Newswire)

Coca-Cola: 99% of Its Packages Globally Were Recyclable in 2024

Coca-Cola says 99% of its primary consumer packaging around the world was recyclable in 2024, according to an annual environmental update. That’s an increase from the stagnant 90% it reported for 2022 and 2023. During most of that 2024 period, Coca-Cola was working toward packaging sustainability targets pegged to 2025 and 2030, which it replaced at the end of last year with goals for 2035. Those goals include using at least 35% recycled material in primary packaging, increasing recycled plastic use to at least 30%, and on the back end collecting at least 70% of the bottles and cans it put on the market. Coca-Cola reported that in 2024 it increased the rate of recycled content in its primary packaging globally to 28%. PET is its most-used substrate, and 18% of that was recycled PET. Coca-Cola’s total weight of virgin plastic used increased to 2.94 million metric tons in 2024, after declining in 2023 to 2.83 million metric tons. As for reuse, Coca-Cola reported 14% of total beverage volume was served in reusable packaging. The company said it’s focused on “increased advocacy for well-designed collection systems,” including extended producer responsibility and deposit return systems, “as these are often the most efficient ways to improve packaging collection rates.” (Source: Packaging Dive)

Greenback and Amcor Partner to Bring Advanced Recycling to the UK

Greenback Recycling Technologies announced that the first U.K. deployment of its Enval® advanced recycling module at global packaging leader Amcor’s facility in Heanor, Derbyshire, where it will undergo a six-month commissioning and trial phase. This significant step marks the first time Greenback’s modular chemical recycling technology is hosted by a global packaging leader in Europe. The partnership with Amcor aims to showcase the potential for co-locating modular recycling units within existing industrial infrastructure— bringing the circular economy closer to reality. The module’s installation at Heanor will provide important learnings for scaling circularity as it will predominantly convert household post-consumer flexible packaging waste. Greenback’s advanced recycling technology is designed to process post-consumer flexible packaging, including multilaminate materials, and convert it into high-quality pyrolytic oil, suitable for producing food-grade plastics. (Source: Greenback Recycling Technologies)

EcoPro Materials and Green Li-ion Announce LOI to Establish Long-Term Strategic Partnership for Recycled NCM Hydroxide Supply

Green Li-ion Pte. Ltd. and EcoPro Materials Co., Ltd. announced the signing of a Letter of Intent (LOI) to establish a strategic partnership. The agreement outlines EcoPro’s intent to purchase NCM hydroxide produced from recycled Li-ion battery waste at Green Li-ion’s U.S. facility in Atoka, Oklahoma. Under the LOI, Green Li-ion will supply recycled battery material to Ecopro for the next 5 years starting in 2026, which will underpin a significant expansion in the Atoka facility’s production volume. As the first step in this partnership, a mass production trial is being currently completed, after which long-term supply agreements will be duly agreed subject to final commercial agreement. The scope of the agreements will begin with NCM Hydroxide supply and may expand to include other battery materials where mutually acceptable. (Source: PR Newswire)

ZenRobotics and USConveyor to Accelerate Robotics/AI in Scrap Metal Sorting

ZenRobotics, a leader in AI-powered robotic waste sorting systems, and USConveyor, a specialist in custom scrap metal recycling solutions, have secured a repeat order for seven additional ZenRobotics Heavy Pickers from one of America’s largest steel recyclers. This follows the successful commissioning of three units for the same customer in 2024, marking a significant endorsement of robotic sorting’s performance and reliability in high-volume scrap operations. USConveyor boasts over a century of combined experience in designing optimal scrap metal recycling systems. Their expertise lies in understanding the critical design details that enable equipment to perform exceptionally, even in limited spaces. The collaboration between ZenRobotics and USConveyor aims to reshape how recyclers approach efficiency, safety, and purity in metal recovery by integrating ZenRobotics automated solutions into new and existing processing lines. (Source: ZenRobotics)

US Implements EU Trade Deal, 15% Autos Tariffs Retroactive to Aug 1

President Donald Trump’s administration said on Wednesday it was formally implementing the U.S. trade agreement with the European Union, confirming that a 15% duty rate for EU autos and auto parts began on August 1 and listing tariff exemptions for generic pharmaceuticals, aircraft and aircraft parts. In a Federal Register notice, the Commerce Department and the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said they have amended the tariff schedule to implement the framework agreement reached with the EU in July that lowers the Republican president's tariffs to 15% on most imports from the EU, including autos. The deal was subsequently modified to make the duty rate retroactive to August 1, but European automakers have been waiting for weeks for the formal U.S. notice. The U.S. notice also specifies hundreds of products from the EU that are exempt from Trump’s new tariffs, including natural resources such as cork lacking in the United States, all aircraft and aircraft parts, and generic pharmaceuticals and their ingredients and chemical precursors. (Source: Reuters)

Mexico Advances Circular Economy With Tire Management Pact

Mexico took a step toward sustainability and circular economy practices as the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) and the National Chamber of the Tire Industry (CNIH) signed a framework agreement to promote responsible end-of-life tire management. The agreement supports the presidential initiative to develop a Circular Economy Park in Hidalgo. The goal is to transform how used tires are managed and transition to circular and sustainable production processes. SEMARNAT and CNIH will create a coordinating body bringing together key stakeholders in the tire value chain—including manufacturers, distributors, recyclers, and government authorities. The body will establish technical standards, ensure traceability, and promote sustainable tire recovery, moving the industry toward an extended producer responsibility model. (Source: Mexico Business News)