Malaysian steel scrap imports hit lowest level in 6 months

Malaysia imported 24,226 tons of scrap steel during the month of October last year.

BEIJING (Scrap Monster): The latest statistics released by the Malaysian Department of Statistics indicate that the country’s ferrous scrap imports increased sharply during the month of October last year, when compared with the previous month. The imports increased sharply from the same month a year ago. However, cumulative scrap imports by the country during the initial ten-month period of the year were down sharply by 47.1% when matched with the corresponding period in 2015.

Malaysia imported 24,226 tons of scrap steel during the month of October this year. The imports were up sharply by 47.35% when matched with the previous month. The country had imported only 16,441 tons of scrap steel during September 2016. The imports during the month hit the lowest level in over six months, the country’s Statistics Department noted. The imports had touched the 2016 peak of 30,193 tons in June ’16.

The biggest exporter of ferrous scrap to Malaysia during October last year was Singapore. The imports by Malaysia from Singapore totaled 9,364 tons, accounting for nearly 39% of the total scrap imports by Malaysia during the month. The imports from Singapore witnessed sharp rise by more than 19% from September ’16 levels. Malaysia had imported 7,833 tons during September last year. Australia was the second largest exporter during the month, with 4,112 tons. The ferrous scrap imports by Malaysia from Australia surged higher by nearly 245% over the previous month. In third place was the UK with 2,395 tons. The other key exporters of ferrous scrap from Malaysia during the month were the USA (2,230 tons), Japan (1,812 tons) and Papua New Guinea (386 tons).

The country imported 207,893 tons of scrap steel during the initial ten-month period of the year. The imports declined sharply by over 47% when compared with the net import volume of 393,275 tons during the period from January to October in 2015. The monthly imports averaged at 20.79 tons so far this year. At the current rate, the country’s scrap steel imports are estimated to total around 250,000 tons during the entire year 2016.

The largest exporter of ferrous scrap to Malaysia during the initial ten-month period of the year was Singapore. The exports by Singapore totaled 82,952 tons, accounting for nearly 40% share of the total imports by the country during the period. The imports from Singapore increased declined significantly by over 12% from the previous year. Malaysia had imported 94,375 tons during Jan-Oct in 2015.

The USA was the second largest exporting nation during the first ten months of the year. The ferrous scrap exports by the US to Malaysia totaled 44,806 tons, accounting for nearly 22% share of Malaysia’s total imports during the period. The imports from the US dropped sharply by nearly 53% year-on-year. In third place was Australia with 13.4% share of total Malaysia imports. The imports to Malaysia plunged by over 77% to 27,874 tons when matched with the imports of 121,918 tons during Jan-Oct ’15. The other key suppliers of ferrous scrap to Malaysia a during the ten-month period were Japan (17,920 tons), the UK (9,439 tons), New Zealand (3,314 tons) and Papua New Guinea (2,949 tons).

The table below provides the summary of Malaysia’s ferrous scrap imports during the year-to-date period.

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