US scrap plastic export volumes see strong gains in 2014

SPOKANE (Scrap Monster): The scrap plastics export volume by the US gained significantly during the entire year 2014 over the previous year. However, ferrous and aluminum scrap exports continued to decline, whereas paper scrap exports witnessed marginal rebound during the year.

The latest scrap export data released for the month of Dec ’14 indicates that scrap plastics export volumes declined by almost 3.0% when compared with the previous month. The exports totaled 359.47 million pounds during the month. The exports were up slightly by 0.4% when compared with the 358.13 million pounds exported during Dec ’13.

On the other hand, the cumulative scrap plastics exports during the entire year 2014 registered significant gains over the previous year. The exports during January to December in 2014 totaled 4.79 billion pounds, 13.7% higher when compared with 2013.

The weighted price of scrap plastic exports in Dec ’14 stood at 19.19 cents per pound, 7.7% down from the Nov ’14 levels. The weighted price was down 1.5% when compared with Dec ’13. The weighted price averaged at 19.79 during 2014, 3.0% down when compared with the previous year.

Recovered paper exports improved marginally by 1.3% to 19.11 million metric tons during 2014. However, the weighted average price during the year remained flat at $165 per metric ton.

Ferrous scrap exports declined sharply by 17.1% during the year 2014 to 15.32 million metric tons. The weighted average price during the year was slightly down by 1.8% at $402 per metric ton.

Also, aluminum scrap exports during 2014 dropped significantly by 8.3% to 3.79 billion pounds. The weighted average price too dropped 4.2% to 76 cents per pound.