U.S. Exports of Copper Scrap Recorded 17% Surge

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The U.S. exports of copper waste and scrap reported notable surge during the first eleven months of 2018, says the latest trade statistics published by the U.S. Census Bureau. Also, imports of scrap copper witnessed marginal increase through November 2018.

The U.S. copper scrap exports totaled $2.93 billion in Jan-Nov ‘18, higher by 16.87% when compared with the exports of $2.50 billion through the first eleven months of 2017. The top trade partner during Jan-Nov ’18 was China. The exports to China totaled $1.05 billion, accounting for approximately 36% of the total exports. In second place was Canada, which received $318.63 million worth of copper scrap from the U.S. The other primary export destinations were South Korea ($297.08 million), Japan ($187.89 million), Malaysia ($177.24 million) and Germany ($163.73 million).

The exports to the top five foreign market destinations totaled $2.03 billion, representing just over 69% of the total U.S exports.

The exports totaled $265.46 million for the month of November 2018 alone.

The U.S. imports of copper waste and scrap have increased marginally by 2.05% over the previous year to total $713.35 million through November last year. It must be noted that the country’s copper scrap imports had totaled only $699.03 million during the corresponding eleven-month period in 2017.

The top five sources of import were Canada ($462.09 million), Mexico ($180.09 million), Venezuela ($15.55 million), Panama ($8.26 million) and Colombia ($5.62 million). The combined imports from the above countries totaled $671.61 million, accounting for nearly 94.15% of the total imports by the U.S.

The monthly imports were valued at $55.69 million in November 2018.