BIR: Global ferrous scrap industry on a much sounder footing

BRUSSELS (Scrap Monster): The latest Ferrous World Mirror released by the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) states that improving market conditions have led to sudden surge in scrap prices over the past several months. The collection levels have rebounded from historical low levels. The present market conditions indicate that global ferrous scrap market is currently on a much sounder footing, noted BIR ferrous division president William Schmiedel. However, he cautioned that the industry is still not out of the woods.

Europe

The pickup in demand for scrap in Turkey has led to sharp rally in ferrous scrap prices. The prices surpassed $300 per tonne, on the back of surging demand. However, buying activity has seen marginal slowdown as buyers were seen unwilling to take risks. The domestic scrap prices in the EU region continued to remain strong, with price increases of up to € 40 per tonne expected during the month of May this year.

Ferrous scrap export trade out of the European region, which had remained buoyant during the months of February and March this year, has shown signs of slowing down thereafter. According to market sources, the slowdown in exports is mainly on the back of lack of buying activity from Indian importers.

India

The Indian importers are believed to have stocked sufficient quantities before the recent rally in prices and are now waiting on sidelines for prices to recede from its high levels. Trade participants indicate that buying from India is most likely to resume in the upcoming months. The Indian scrap imports are expected to cross 6 million tonnes during the entire fiscal year 2015-’16, surging higher by almost 20% from the previous fiscal. The import data available for the first ten months suggest that the country imported 5.1 million tonnes.

USA

The US market conditions showed significant improvement on the back of increased demand and tight supply situation. The scrap prices are expected to rally further during the current month.

CIS

The Russian markets too showed signs of recovery. Collections have improved considerably, with moderate improvement in demand for scrap. The overseas shipments from Russia too increased sharply on continuing demand from Turkey. The other factors that lend support to Russian exports are weakening ruble rates and low freight charges. Meantime, in a bid to reduce the shortage of ferrous scrap metal on the domestic market, the Ukranian government has approved a bill that increases export duties for scrap ferrous metals temporarily for three years from EUR 10 per tonne from EUR 30 per tonne. The scrap imports by Belarus increased significantly by over 10% in 2015 to 1.382 million tonnes.

Scrap Imports

The Turkish scrap import volumes plunged heavily during the past year to 16.251 million tonnes, falling sharply by nearly 15% when matched with 2014. Major Asian countries too reported drop in import levels during the year. The scrap imports by South Korea plummeted by 28% year-on-year to 5.758 million tonnes. The other countries to report sharp decline in imports were Taiwan (3.373 million tonnes, down 21%), China (2.328 million tonnes, down 9.2%) and Indonesia (1.02 million tonnes, down 52.3%).

Meantime scrap imports by India went higher by nearly 18% over the previous year to 6.71 million tonnes in 2015. Mexico too raised its scrap imports by 62.1% year-on-year to 1.483 million tonnes.

Scrap Exports

The scrap exports by the EU-28 countries declined nearly 19% year-on-year to total 86.6 million tonnes in 2015. The shipments out of the US too dropped sharply by 15.4% to 12.976 million tonnes. On the other hand, Japan’s scrap exports witnessed year-on-year rise of nearly 7% to 7.847 million tonnes. The exports by Ukraine too were up by over 30% to 1.213 million tonnes during the year.