A leading player in the metals recycling sector has entered liquidation, with the company’s assets now being offered for sale. Acetech Metals, founded in 1998 and operating across two major sites in the North of England, processed ferrous metals and aluminium for both domestic re-use and export markets.
However, amid mounting financial pressures across the recycling and metals sector, the company has entered liquidation following the appointment of a voluntary liquidator, Richard Marchinton, in September last year. The liquidation has triggered the disposal of Acetech Metals’ operational assets, with the equipment listed via the firm’s online auction platform. BPI Asset Advisory has been appointed to manage the process.
As the company winds up its affairs, more than 80 lots of large-capacity plant and equipment are being made available, including a range of material handlers from manufacturers such as Liebherr and Fuchs, alongside Caterpillar excavators and dump trucks, according to letsrecycle.com. The auction is scheduled to close on January 22.
Luke Hartshorn, Director at BPI Asset Advisory, commented: “We anticipate strong interest in this disposal.
“The scale and specification of the machinery on offer make it particularly attractive to recyclers, demolition businesses and contractors looking to increase capacity with equipment that is built for continuous, heavy-duty use.”
For the past 27 years, Acetech Metals covered a broad range of processing activities, including magnetic separation, mobile and static shearing, shredding, baling and downstream handling. It also handled used beverage cans (UBCs), tinplate and ferrous material streams linked to Waste to Energy facilities.
The business acquired a 20-acre site in Scunthorpe in 2021, following the securing of a £3.25million funding package. It had also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with HyOrc Corporation in July 2025 to jointly develop a green methanol production facility in Scunthorpe.
Its collapse comes at a time of ongoing difficulties faced by other operators in the UK, following shortly after the liquidation filing of Unimetals Group, another major metals recycling firm, which was placed into compulsory liquidation by court order in November after failing to secure a buyer or new financing. Unimetals Recycling (UK) Ltd operated 27 sites nationwide and employed around 650 people.