Schnitzer's domestic ferrous scrap sales surged 15% in fiscal 2014

ALBANY (Scrap Monster): The financial results released by US’ Schnitzer Steel Industries shows that the company’s domestic ferrous scrap sales surged by 15% during the fiscal 2014 ended August 31. However, scrap export volumes by the company declined during this period.

According to the company, the 15% surge in domestic sales helped the company to restrict its drop in overall sales volume to only 4%. This is in spite of sharp decline of 15% in scrap export volumes when compared with the previous fiscal.

The ferrous scrap sales totaled 4.1 million lt during fiscal 2014, out of which 2.8 million lt accounted for export sales and the remaining 1.3 million lt constituted domestic sales. This is when compared with the total ferrous scrap sales of 4.3 million lt reported during the previous fiscal. The export and domestic scrap sales totaled 3.2 million lt and 1.1 million lt respectively during fiscal 2013.

Out of the total ferrous scrap sales, 44% were to Asian region, 33% to North American region and 23% to Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Also, ferrous scrap sales volume jumped by 7% during Q4 fiscal 2014. Also, 70% of the sales were to export destinations. Turkey remained the top destination of ferrous scrap during the last quarter, followed by South Korea and Malaysia. The Chinese policy to augment domestic scrap usage resulted in sharp drop in ferrous scrap exports to that country, Schnitzer noted.