U.S. Census Bureau: Exports of Scrap Iron and Steel Dropped 12%

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The latest U.S. Census Bureau data suggests significant decline in exports of scrap iron and steel by the country during the initial ten-month period of the current year.

The U.S. exports of scrap iron and steel totalled $4.48 billion from January to October in 2019, which is significantly lower by 11.41%, when matched with the exports during the corresponding period in 2018. The Jan-Oct ’18 exports had totalled $5.06 billion. The exports were valued at $431.06 million during October this year.

The largest export destination for U.S. scrap iron and steel was Turkey. The country imported $847.45 worth of the material, which accounted for nearly 19% of the total U.S. shipments. The U.S. exports to Turkey were down sharply by over 9% year-on-year. In second place was Taiwan with a market share of approximately 12% of total U.S. exports. The exports to that country were valued at $531.86 million. The third largest importer was India, whose imports from the U.S. were valued at $415.38 million in Jan-Oct ’19. The other key markets of U.S. exports were Vietnam ($343.71 million) and Malaysia ($297.83 million).

More than 54% of the total scrap iron and steel exports from the U.S. were to the above five markets.

The imports of scrap iron and steel by the U.S. too registered notable decline by almost 27% to total $1.13 billion during the initial ten months of 2019. The top five suppliers were Canada ($762.91 million), Mexico ($179.41 million), Sweden ($77.18 million), the Netherlands ($47.67 million) and the UK ($35.76 million). These five countries together supplied nearly $1.1 billion worth of scrap iron and steel, accounting for more than 97% of the total U.S. imports.