US Exports of Copper Waste and Scrap See Rapid Rise Through July

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The most recently published US Census Bureau data suggests significant jump in the country’s exports of copper waste and scrap during the first seven months of the current year. The exports surged higher by nearly 19% to $1.5 billion, as compared with the exports of $1.25 billion during the corresponding seven-month period in 2016. The exports had amounted to $2.23 billion during the entire year 2016.

The top five markets for US copper waste and scrap exports were China, Canada, Germany, South Korea and Japan. The exports to the above five market destinations totaled $1.27 billion and accounted for 85% of all copper waste and scrap exports by the US through July 2017.

China emerged as the largest importer of copper waste and scrap from the US with imports totaling $908 million, accounting for 60.66% of the total US shipments. The exports to China surged higher by over 21% over the previous year. The imports by Canada totaled $170.5 million, rising sharply by over 60% from the year before. In third place was Germany with imports from the US amounting to $77.3 million. The country registered marginal increase of just over 9% in import volumes over the previous year. The exports to South Korea and Japan totaled $65.8 million and $52.3 million respectively.

Among Customs districts, Los Angeles accounted for nearly 30% of all shipments, followed by New York City and Norfolk with market shares of 14.4% and 6.9% respectively. Detroit and San Francisco also featured in the top-five list. These five Customs districts accounted for 62% of exports of copper waste and scrap from the US during Jan-July ’17.

Meantime, imports of copper waste and scrap too have registered notable increase during the first seven months of 2017. The imports were up sharply by 72% from $247.75 million in Jan-July ’16 to $425.03 million through the first seven months of 2017. It must be noted that the imports were valued at $458.38 million during the full year 2016.

The top exporter of copper waste and scrap to the US was Canada. The imports from Canada totaled $289.5 million, accounting for approximately 68% of total imports. The imports from the Mexico and Venezuela totaled $99.8 million and $5.8 million respectively. Panama ($4.9 million) and Colombia ($4.2 million) were the other leading exporters of copper waste and scrap to the US. The exports by the above five countries accounted for nearly 95% of the total imports by the US during the initial seven-month period of 2017.

Buffalo, Detroit, Laredo, El Paso and Ogdensburg, NY emerged as the top five Customs districts, by value of imports. The cumulative imports by the top five Customs districts amounted to $362.06 million.