Published by: Amy Hinton<>
13 Mar 2025 @ 23:20 UTC

Radius Recycling is to be acquired by a US subsidiary of Toyota Group, the former announced on Thursday March 13, the latest move in a push by Japanese conglomerates to invest in US steel, scrap and raw materials assets.

Toyota Tsusho America Inc will purchase the Portland, Oregon-headquartered recycler for $30 per share, constituting a 115% premium to the company’s closing share price on Wednesday March 12, Radius said in a news release pertaining to the acquisition. The implied total enterprise value of the transaction, including net debt, is estimated at $1.34 billion, according to the release.
Radius will continue operating out of its Portland headquarters with all incumbent teams, facilities and brands retained, the company said.
Toyota Tsusho America is a subsidiary of Japan’s Toyota Tsusho Corp (TTC), which is a member of Toyota Group — owner of Toyota Motor Corp and a slew of steel and auto part manufacturing companies. TTC is focused on transactions related to imports and exports between Japan and foreign countries, according to the Toyota Group website.
Radius recorded a net loss of $37 million for the fiscal-year 2025 first quarter — ended November 30, 2024 — attributed primarily to low scrap availability and global steel market headwinds aggravated by exports of Chinese steel.
Losses incurred in the corresponding period of the prior year totaled $18 million.
This is positive after eight sequential quarters of loss,” an export source said of the ramifications of the deal. “I expect dealers’ scrap packages to be more strictly graded and priced accordingly in the wake of the acquisition.”
The deal aims to leverage TTC’s financial resources, recycling technology and experience in providing recycled metals to the automotive sector.
Japanese automotive sector participants had expressed to Fastmarkets their interest in investing in US-based iron ore and scrap assets against the backdrop of Nippon Steel’s tumultuous path to acquire heritage steel producer US Steel.
Amid intense resistance to the proposed $14.9 billion purchase, Nippon was instead confirmed to be ‘heavily investing’ in US Steel by President Donald Trump in a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House on February 7.
Opponents of the deal, including Cleveland Cliffs chief executive officer Laurenco Golcalves, were wary that Japanese investment in the company would lead to the harnessing and eventual export of ore units to service steel and end-use-sector production offshore in Japan, leaving the US market short of such resources.
Toyota just bought one of the largest US recyclers. It’s very interesting in the current climate, a second export source said.
The quick-moving and destabilizing tariff situation in the US calls into question the viability of importing and exporting material, but amid the upheaval, significant Japanese and other offshore investment in the US is emerging.
Trump announced in his State of the Union address on March 4 that he would partner with Japan and South Korea, among others, on a liquified natural gas pipeline in Alaska.
This, and the partial reversal that has allowed Nippon to garner a stake in US Steel, signals the intent to link the US and Japanese manufacturing sectors.
Radius is a huge prime [scrap] player in the south of the United States, and access to Toyota Tsusho business will give [Radius] a bigger opportunity for prime scrap business in the region, a second source said of the sale.
Prices for prime scrap in the greater Houston area broadly traded at a $20 per gross ton increase compared with the broad $30 per ton increase garnered in northern states in March versus February. This was attributed mostly to an 80,000 ton scrap overhang in the Houston region, with three major Mexican steelmakers refusing to import US scrap as part of that country’s tariff retaliation process.
Radius also has export operations on both US coasts.
Export prices continued to climb in an East Coast sale to Turkey that was heard concluded on Thursday at $380 per tonne CFR for an 80:20 mix of No1 and No2 heavy melting scrap — a $6.50 increase to the previous cargo deal.
US exporters are now said to be targeting $390 per tonne CFR for their HMS 1&2 (80:20).