Survey of World Scrap Trade in August 2019

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Turkish scrap imports tumbled in the first eight months of the current year, said the data from the Turkish Iron and Steel Producers’ Association (TCUD). The country’s imports were down 15.4% from the previous year to total around 12.3 million tons in Jan-Aug ’19. The value of imports has dropped by almost 24% to $3.9 billion.

The Chinese scrap imports touched a new low of around 4,500 tons in August 2019. The imports were down significantly upon comparison with 820,000 tons in the same month a year before. The year-to-date imports plunged by 83% over the previous year to 170,000 tons. The primary scrap supplier was Japan, from where China imported nearly one-fifth of its total imports. South Korea ranked second with supplies of nearly 30,000 tons.

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According to Ministry data, total scrap exports by Japan in August this year surged higher by 11.6% over the previous year to 692,000 tons. The primary suppliers of scrap to Japan were South Korea and Vietnam, whose supplies totalled 297,000 tons and 257,000 tons respectively. The Japanese scrap imports totalled around 6,500 tons in August. This is down by 20.6% year-on-year. The cumulative scrap imports from January to August this year totalled approximately 86,000 tons.

Meantime, Ministry of Finance (MoF) data suggests that Japan imported almost 26.6 million tons of stainless steel scrap. The major suppliers included South Korea, the U.S., Taiwan and Indonesia.