U.S. Precious Metal Scrap Exports Soared 16%

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The U.S. exports of scrap of precious metals totaled $4.30 billion in 2018. This is significantly higher by 15.57% when compared with the exports of $3.72 billion during the entire year 2017. The category was ranked in 75^th position, as per the latest trade data published by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The top trade partner during the year was Canada. The exports to Canada totaled $1.08 billion, accounting for more than 25% of all U.S. shipments. The shipments to Canada increased marginally by 1.6% in 2018, upon comparison with the year before that. The second top export destination was Germany, which received $945.93 million of scrap of precious metals from the U.S. The exports to Germany were up significantly by nearly 35% over the year and represented 22% market share. In third place was the U.K, which accounted for 18.4% of the total U.S. exports. The exports to the U.K. totaled $791.22 million. The other key importers during the year were Italy ($613.91 million) and Japan ($356.44 million).

The above top five export destinations accounted for more than 88% of the total U.S. shipments of precious metals scrap.

Also, the imports of precious metals scrap have increased marginally by 2.43% during 2018 to $1.89 billion from $1.84 billion in 2017. The leading sources were Germany ($453.24 million), Canada ($388.56 million), the U.K. ($174.04 million), Mexico ($164.61 million), and Singapore ($137.53 million). These top five foreign markets accounted for almost 70% of all the imports of precious metal scrap by the U.S. during the previous year.