South Korea’s Scrap Exports Dropped Sharply by 33%

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The latest statistics released by the Korean Customs and Trade Development Institution indicate that the country’s ferrous scrap exports declined considerably during the initial two-month period of the current year, when matched with the previous year. However, the monthly exports rose marginally over the previous month.

South Korea exported 34,206 tons of ferrous scrap during the month of February this year. The exports were up marginally by 6.2% when matched with the previous month. The country’s exports had totaled 32,210 tons in January 2018.

The largest export destination of ferrous scrap exports from South Korea was Vietnam. The exports to Vietnam totaled 9,873 tons, higher when matched with the exports of 8,571 tons in Jan ’18. The second largest importer was Japan with 7,097 tons. In third place was China with imports totaling 7,061 tons. The other major importers of ferrous scrap from South Korea were Thailand (4,979 tons), India (2,512 tons), Taiwan (1,660 tons) and Indonesia (583 tons).

The cumulative exports during the initial two-month period of the year totaled 66,416 tons, significantly down by 32.7% over the previous year. The exports had totaled 98,729 tons during the first two months in 2017. The huge jump in exports to Taiwan was offset by significant decline in import volumes by other key destinations including China, India, Thailand and Indonesia.

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Vietnam imported 18,444 tons, accounting for 27.8% of the total ferrous scrap exports by South Korea during Jan-Feb ’18. Although the share of exports by Vietnam rose from 20.4% in 2017, the volume of imports dropped by 8.5% when matched with 20,156 tons imported during the opening two months of 2017. China, the second largest importer, received 13,334 tons of ferrous scrap, which is equivalent to 20.1% share of total exports. The exports to China dropped sharply by nearly 54% year-on-year. In third place was Japan with imports of 11,363 tons.

Taiwan recorded over 250% year-on-year jump in import volumes. On the other hand, Indonesian imports fell by 62%. The imports by Thailand and India too declined by 58% and 48% respectively.