Pakistan's iron and steel scrap imports surge in Jan '15

ISLAMABAD (Scrap Monster): According to latest statistics released by the Pakistan Federal Bureau of Statistics (PFBS), the country’s imports of steel and iron scrap surged higher during the month of January this year.

The scrap imports during the month totaled 204,950 tons. This is 46% higher when compared with a year ago. The country’s scrap imports had totaled 140,376 tons during January last year. When compared with the previous month, the scrap imports during Jan ’15 declined significantly. Month-on-month, the steel and iron scrap imports by Pakistan dropped 11.5% when matched with 231,515 tons imported during Dec ’14.

The revenues generated by scrap imports surged higher by 59% during the month. The scrap import revenues totaled US$81.4 million during Jan ’15 when compared with US$51.2 million during the same month a year before.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet led by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in a meeting held last week has decided to impose 5% regulatory duty on import of metal scrap into the country. The Committee noted that consumers have not been benefitted by the huge price drop in international scrap market, as the decline in prices is not passed on to end-users. Consequently, the prices of goods manufactured from metal scrap still continue to remain high. The imposition of duty is intended to ease this situation, noted ECC.

Meanwhile, steel imports by Pakistan climbed higher by 5.4% over the previous year to total 202,154 tons during January this year.