Malaysia Threatens to Impose Strict Restrictions on Copper Scrap Imports

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Malaysia has proposed stricter rules, aimed at ensuring the purity of imported copper scrap.

The Malaysian standards agency SIRIM proposes one of the strictest contamination threshold limits. As per the new rules, the minimum metal content of shipments should be 94.75%. In addition, it also requires the shipments to conform to zero impurities.

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It must be noted that even China had not tried to implement zero tolerance level. Also, Indonesia, which had initially proposed 0.5% impurity threshold, had to later accept 2% threshold limit, following persistent interventions by recycling trade bodies including the International Scrap Recycling Institute (ISRI) and the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR).

The above proposal is likely to affect China, as Malaysia has been the largest supplier of higher-grade recyclable copper. The copper scrap shipments from Malaysia to China had totalled 172,000 tonnes in 2020, accounting for almost one-fifth of the country’s total imports.

Meantime, the Malaysia Non-Ferrous Metals Association (MNMA) has warned that the revised threshold standards will lead to destruction of the country’s scrap processing sector. However, the state authorities noted that the restrictions are aimed at preventing Malaysia from becoming a dumping ground of world’s scrap.