On 15 October 2026 all shares of Loacker Rheinhafen Recycling GmbH passed to Gerhard Lang Recycling GmbH of Gaggenau. The family steel-scrap and metal recycler said the Karlsruhe Rhine-port yard is its first purchase of a new site. EUWID Recycling und Entsorgung and the Federal Association for Secondary Raw Materials and Recycling (bvse) carried the company announcement on 16 October. No purchase price was published.
Loacker Recycling of Austria had run the yard as a wholly owned German subsidiary. The site occupies about 20,000 square metres at the Karlsruhe Rhine harbour. It has a scrap shear with 1,300 tonnes of cutting force, so old ferrous can be prepared on the quay rather than hauled inland first. Lang already moved scrap by road and by rail, including with its own works locomotives. The harbour adds inland-waterway loading and discharge. The company said that mix of road, rail and barge should let it move larger lots by inland vessel, and that transport cost and carbon dioxide could fall on some routes.
What the Karlsruhe yard now does
The purchase adds a harbour shear and a barge berth at one Upper Rhine load point. Old scrap can be sheared on site and then sent by barge, rail or truck. That combination matters while Rhine draft is still tight. The same day's October market note from bvse, summarised by GMK Center, still described Rhine shipping as critical, with some steelworks and scrap suppliers effectively cut off from water transport. EUROMETAL, citing Kallanish on 9 October, reported that thyssenkrupp Steel's own barge fleet remained suspended and that the mill was chartering shallower third-party vessels. See Rhine low water and the IREPAS Belgrade briefing for the corridor those barges serve.
Lang, founded in 1898, employs more than 200 people and prepares metal scrap for industrial accounts and melt shops. EUWID, citing the German company register, put about 80 percent of 2025 turnover in ferrous scrap, with an export share of 57 percent. The Karlsruhe berth therefore sits on a book that already leaves southwest Germany. The 1,300-tonne figure is the shear's cutting force, not a monthly purchase programme published to the trade.
Who it affects among yards, traders, mills and processors
Yards in Baden-Württemberg, Alsace and along the Upper Rhine that sold prepared old ferrous into Loacker Karlsruhe should ask who now books the ticket. The shear and the quay are the same assets. The counterparty is now Lang. If you used that yard as a third-party shear, confirm whether the new owner still takes outside material or only its own arisings. The previous operator also handled non-ferrous at the harbour; a copper or aluminium parcel should be named as such and checked before it is offered as a ferrous add-on.
Traders stemming barge scrap down the Rhine toward Ruhr mills or toward Rotterdam and Antwerp should treat Karlsruhe as a load point that can switch mode when draft or rail fails. Write the intended mode and the Incoterm. See freight and collection costs. German recyclers already told EUWID in September that empty wagons and low water were delaying sold scrap; the harbour purchase is one firm's answer to that delivery problem, not a change in mill melt. See the September German rollover.
Mills that melt HMS or shredded from southwest Germany have another prepared-old-scrap origin with harbour access. A works that can take barge scrap should say so. A works that can only take truck should not be offered a river programme. Processors that already shear for export 80/20 or fragmentiser steel are still needed on this corridor. Buyers will keep asking for the HMS language already used on this site.
How to name the lot
Name the grade the mill already buys: HMS 1, HMS 2, HMS 1&2 80/20, or shredded. State tonnes, whether it is sheared, unprepared old scrap or fragmentiser steel, the city or harbour (Karlsruhe or Gaggenau), and whether the sale is ex-works or delivered. Name barge, rail or truck if that is how it will move. Do not write a 1,300-tonne shear, a 20,000-square-metre yard or an export-share figure on the parcel.
Verified companies can list on live lots or post a wanted enquiry. Request access if you have prepared ferrous on the Upper Rhine or a melt to cover.