From January to April, steel prices nearly doubled and in May, Eddy said new steel plate averaged about 45 cents a pound.

Shredded scrap prices also have experienced an increase.

In May, shredded scrap was sold at an average price of 8.5 cents per pound, up from 5.8 cents per pound in May of 2003, according to William Bremner, president of Behr Iron and Steel Corporation.

"That grade of scrap reached a record high in March of 2004 of 12.8 cents per pound. Now it's come back down about to 8.5 cents per pound for shredded scrap delivered to most steel mills,'' Bremner added.

Although the prices haven't climbed at the rate industry experts predicted, Eddy said the prices are still high and he said it might increase up to 10 percent in the coming months.

While the high prices have boosted sales at Joseph Behr and Sons, the fluctuating prices have been a blow to local job shops, making it difficult to give accurate bids to customers and to deliver goods on time.

Because of this, Behr said he hopes the prices will stay steady so all manufacturers can be successful.

"It would be best for everyone if it would strike a reasonable price and wasn't so volatile,'' Behr said.

During a time of shortages, Joseph Behr's task of recycling metals and reselling to Stateline Area steel mills and foundries is critical.

"Scraps go right to the hub of something worthwhile,'' Behr said.

Through its many divisions and subsidiaries, the Rockford-based Joseph Behr and Sons buys and sells iron and steel in addition to melting aluminum.

"The scrap business is just manufacturing outside,'' Behr said.

The sixteenth largest scrap yard in the nation, Joseph Behr

and Sons has more than 400 industrial contracts in the Rockford area alone.

The 40-acre Rockford site is home to Behr Iron and Steel, a subsidiary of the main company, which buys and sells scrap iron and steel from peddlers, industry and railroads before reselling it to steel mills. The Behr Metals subsidiary, which provides aluminum ingots, sells primarily to die casters.

A brokerage division, also based in Rockford, buys and sells scrap metal by truck, rail, car, and barge for direct shipment to steel mills and foundries.

In addition to recycling metal, Joseph Behr and Sons operates a construction and trucking company.

G & M Construction Inc., laid the concrete slabs, erected buildings and installed the railroad tracks within the Behr complex in Rockford.

Behr Trucking operates a fleet of 40 trucks, primarily for transportation of scrap iron and metals. It utilizes tractor-trailers, roll-offs, huge-hauls, luggers, dumpsters and straight trucks.

A visit to the Rockford base isn't complete, Behr said, without a visit to the company Behr Den _ a small restaurant specializing in Behrburgers.

In addition to Behr's many divisions housed in Rockford, the company has scrap processing facilities located all over the Midwest. Joseph Behr and Sons receives scraps from industry, wrecking jobs, as well as railroad, building and household obsolescence.

For example, the Behr Beloit facility, 18 acres on the Wisconsin border, specializes in receiving and processing disposed automobiles.

"We have a shredder that shreds the cars. We get mostly automobiles, appliances, and all kinds of metal we can shred,'' Phil Bacon, Behr Beloit scale manager, said.

The Behr Peoria facility, a 40-acre site, specializes in processing iron, steel and all grades of non-ferrous metals, as well as disposed automobiles. The facility is home to a Texas automobile shredder and two Harris hydraulic sheers - 900 ton and 1,000 ton with eight foot openings.

"It's the end of life for cars,'' Behr added.

The Behr Port of Indiana, located in Portage, is a 10-acre area located on the property of Midwest Steel, a Division of National Steel. Equipment includes two huge car balers.

The most recent acquisition for the company was Behr Green County located in Monroe. The company purchased the 10-acre facility last year.

In addition to collecting from scrap peddlers, Joseph Behr and Sons leaves containers at area manufacturing facilities, collecting more than 50,000 tons of scrap metal a month.

Although profiting now, the scrap steel business wasn't always so profitable. A couple of years ago was a low point for the industry, with 80 mills closing around the nation from 1999-2001, Behr said.

Founded in 1906, Joseph Behr and Sons. has been serving industry for almost a century. Behr credits his company's success to its commitment to worker and environmental safety combined with new technologies.

"Management has pledged a continuing commitment to this endeavor. Years ago scrap yards were thought of as bottom of the barrel. Now the equipment is sophisticated and capital intensive,'' Behr said.

As the profits have grown, Joseph Behr and Sons Inc. has gone to extraordinary lengths to protect the environment.

"We believe environmental concerns are a civic responsibility. Also, we are convinced each succeeding year will bring increasing governmental vigilance and punitive actions to those who are careless in the disposal of their industrial waste,'' Behr said.

No oil laden industrial scrap is ever placed on the bare ground, while all oil-bearing industrial scrap is unloaded onto one of three concrete containment systems.

"All the oil comes off the scrap, is collected, processed chemically and the oil is removed. The clean water is returned to the Rockford Sewer system,'' Behr said. "Safety and environmental security is really big stuff in this company.''

To help ensure worker safety the company holds monthly safety meetings with a cross-section of employees, according to Ron Coupar, Behr environmental safety officer.

"Our biggest challenge is to ensure people don't get hurt,'' Coupar said. "The safety committee is composed of hourly workers, not foremen.''

The peer-elected group takes tours of the plant, noting any potential dangers.

"Anything they see is fixed no matter what. That's not open to debate,'' Behr said.

The peer group awards points to employees demonstrating a commitment to safety and employees can turn in their points for a variety of prizes.

"Setting rules lifts morale. People like that and they know we care,'' Behr added.

Joseph Behr and Sons also provides on-site scrap management for other facilities including John Deere in Dubuque, Iowa, as well as Caterpillar Tractor in Peoria, Ill.

Using detectors to check for radiation, the company will not take items classified as hazardous.

"Our objective was to create an absolute safe harbor for Behr customers. To achieve that, we have developed one of the most advanced scrap metal handling facilities in the nation,'' Behr said.

Behr is proud that the company has recently attained two ISO certifications, internationally recognized standards of quality. They received ISO 9001-2000, for quality and the ISO 14001-1996 environmental certification.

"We are not aware of any other scrap yards in the Midwest with the quality certification. We are certainly one of the first to get an environmental ISO,'' Behr said. "It's a really big thing for a scrap yard. It's not so hard for a plant under a roof, but when you are dealing with all types of oily scraps, it's really a big accomplishment.''

In other efforts to help the environment, Behr is proud to announce the grand opening of a newly constructed recycling center. The facility features a covered drive-through allowing customers to off-load without concern for rain or snow.

"We've tried to make this recycling center user friendly and we hope to see a rise in the recycling of aluminum cans and metals,'' Behr said.

Located at 8407 N. Second St., it is the street across from, and just south of the Machesney Park Mall.

This newly constructed building was erected to encourage recycling by having an accessible, weather-protected facility.

``Recycling is important in the fight to preserve our natural resources. We hope the new building inspires people to bring in their aluminum cans and scrap metal, rather than letting them go to landfills,'' Behr said.

As the third generation owner of the company, Behr said he's spent his whole life learning about scrap metal. He still finds it fascinating to watch employees operate car crushers, gigantic thousand-ton sheers gobble up objects ranging from old fuel tanks to disposed school buses.

``It's amazing to see the amazing skills levels of our workers and what some people can do,'' Behr said.