Scrap Trade Data Exposed Mixed Trend During First Half of 2018

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The scrap trade data for the initial six months of 2018, released by respective government agencies of different counties painted a mixed picture.

According to data published by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), the country’s scrap imports surged higher by 15.8% over the previous year to total 10.8 million tons during the first half of 2018. The sharp rise in imports was mainly due to increased demand from electric arc furnaces. The key scrap supplier to Turkey during Jan-June ’18 was the U.S. The U.S. supplies were up by almost one-third to total around 2 million tons. The other key suppliers were the U.K and Russia.

The statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (MoF) suggests significant drop in imports of scrap by the country in June this year. The imports witnessed sharp downfall by over 47% to total around 10,000 tons. However, the combined imports during the first six months were still up by 43% at nearly 150,000 tons. The U.S was the key supplier, accounting for 52% of the total Japanese imports. Japan’s other main sources of import were South Korea and Taiwan. Meantime, the country reported 5.5% decline in scrap exports during Jan-June ’18. The Japanese scrap exports during this period totaled around 3.78 million.

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The statistics by the South Korean Customs suggests marginal rise by 7.5% in scrap imports by the country during the first half-yearly period in 2018. The scrap imports by the country totaled around 2.36 million tons.

Thailand imported nearly 780,000 tons of scrap from January to June this year, recording a growth of around 20% from the previous year. The country had imported only around 650,000 tons in Jan-June ’17. The key scrap suppliers were the U.S., Myanmar and Australia. The combined supplies by the above three countries accounted for nearly 47% of the scrap imports by Thailand during H1 2018.