U.S. Exports of Nickel Waste and Scrap Dipped 21%

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The U.S. exports of nickel waste and scrap recorded significant decline during the initial seven-month period of the current year. The latest trade data published by the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that the exports collapsed by approximately 21% during this period, when matched with the previous year. The exports were valued at $75.63 million as compared with $95.59 million a year before.

Until July this year, the top trade partner was Canada. The nickel scrap exports from the U.S. to Canada totaled $47.93 million, accounting for over 63% of the total U.S. shipments. The exports to that country witnessed huge decline by nearly 37% over the previous year. The second largest destination of exports was Japan, whose imports from the U.S. Totaled $6.9 million. In third place was the UK with imports of $5.40 million. The other key export destinations were Australia ($4.76 million) and Sweden ($3.04 million).

The combined exports to the above five destinations totaled $68.03 million, accounting for almost 90% of the total shipments of nickel scrap by the U.S. during the initial seven months of the current year. Meantime, the U.S. imports of nickel scrap recorded a year-on-year decline of 5.37% in Jan-July ’19.

The imports dropped from $187.22 million to $177.17 million through the first seven months of 2019. The leading sources of import were the UK ($51.98 million), Canada ($23.48 million), Russia ($21.05 million), Mexico ($17.04 million) and Japan ($13.27 million). These five countries together accounted for nearly 72% of all nickel waste and scrap imported by the U.S. From January to July this year.