Schrott- und Metallhandel M. Kaatsch GmbH
Schrott- und Metallhandel M. Kaatsch GmbH, headquartered in Plochingen (Am Nordseekai 8), is a family-run recycling company that buys, processes and sells steel and non-ferrous metal scrap and is also active in waste wood, secondary raw materials, container logistics, dismantling and cargo handling. The company is registered in the commercial register of the Stuttgart Local Court (Amtsgericht) under HRB 210181. According to its website, it has been operating for more than 70 years, is rooted regionally on the middle Neckar and is linked to an international network of buyers. The Kaatsch group also includes the Stachelski site in Ludwigsburg, Scheutzow in Balingen, ProMetall in Fellbach and Stuttgart, WEAG in Köngen and RVR in Reutlingen and Nehren.
The Plochingen site, located at the last navigable port at the southern end of the Neckar, covers 85,000 m², and the company employs more than 140 people. It has a direct waterway link to the North Sea ports with berths for inland vessels of up to 2,000 t, its own rail siding and a fleet of more than 50 trucks; handling capacity reaches 300 t an hour. Steel scrap is sorted by grade, prepared in modern plants and sold directly to steelworks and foundries. The company introduced a certified quality management system in 1994, has been a certified waste management company (Entsorgungsfachbetrieb) since 1995 and has applied an ISO 14001 environmental management system since 2005; it also holds ISO 50001 certification.
In non-ferrous metals, Kaatsch accepts all common trade grades – from aluminium to zinc, including copper, brass, bronze and lead scrap – and, using portable XRF analysers and stationary spectrometers, prepares them in uniform qualities for smelters and remelters. The company holds end-of-waste certificates for copper scrap (EU Regulation 715/2013) and for iron and steel scrap (EU Regulation 333/2011), and material is checked for radioactivity at four points: receipt, storage, treatment and dispatch. As an IGMNiR member, Kaatsch represents the German metal scrap trading and processing sector, which supplies smelters, remelters and steelworks with secondary raw materials.