Exports of Scrap of Precious Metals by the U.S. Soared 38%

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The latest statistics published by the U.S. Census Bureau suggests considerable surge in exports of precious metal scrap by the country during the opening five months of the current year. The exports surged higher by nearly 38% to $1.9 billion. The monthly exports totaled $325.91 million in May this year.

The top three export markets for U.S. precious metal scrap were Germany, Canada and the U.K. The exports to Germany totaled $505.05 million, accounting for 27% of the total U.S. exports. The exports to that country skyrocketed by 330% over the previous year. Canada received $403.65 million worth of precious metal scrap from the U.S, marginally higher by 2.36% when matched with the previous year. In third place was the U.K with $360 million. 

The U.S imported $744.95 million worth of precious metal scrap during Jan-May ’18. This is higher by nearly 11% when compared with the previous year. The imports totaled $157.76 million during May ’18 alone. It must be noted that the full-year imports had totaled $1.84 billion in 2017.

The top sources of imports were Germany ($185.08 million), Canada ($142.04 million), Singapore ($79.39 million), the U.K. ($45.98 million) and Mexico ($45.11 million). 66.8% of all the scrap of precious metals imported into the U.S. were shipped from the above five markets. The combined imports from these sources totaled $392.88 million.