Episode 502: Markus Ewecker - Managing Director, Tungco GmbH & HSS Recycling

Tungco CEO and Misfit, Cliff Nance, sits down with Markus Ewecker, Managing Director of Tungco GmbH (since 2022) and HSS GmbH (appointed 2025 following Tungco's acquisition), for an inside look at Tungco's European operations recorded on-site at EMO Hannover. Markus shares the 20+ year journey from that first meeting with Steve Nance in Prague back in 2003, becoming a Tungco team member in 2013, to leading one of Europe's most sophisticated tungsten recycling operations today alongside his wife Jolanda and key team members Serdal Akpinar and Kerstin Bente near Düsseldorf, Germany.

This conversation covers the nuts and bolts of tungsten procurement across Europe versus North America, the reality of German regulations (spoiler: it takes 12 months of paperwork just to move into an existing building), and how Markus' team sources material everywhere from Germany to the Middle East. You'll hear about the advantages of having a state-of-the-art, in-house laboratory that delivers analysis results in 48 hours instead of two weeks, the complexities of cross-border tungsten trade, and why stainless steel scrap traders often have tungsten carbide hiding in their yards.

Markus opens up about team building and the DISC profiles that make procurement work, the transition when Tungco closed its Ireland facility and turned plant manager Jimmy Greene into a procurement rockstar (Cliff gives Jimmy a great shoutout around the 41-minute mark). He also reflects on learning by doing, adapting his communication style, and credits Harry Stender - founder of HSS Recycling - as the misfit who brought him into the Tungco family.
Whether you're in the tungsten industry or just curious about how global metal recycling actually works behind the scenes, this episode delivers real talk about building relationships, navigating international business, and what it takes to run a specialty metals operation in Europe.