World Scrap Trade Data Points to Mixed Trend

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The scrap trade data published by various countries suggest mixed trend for the opening month of 2019. The scrap imports by Vietnam hit a new low during the month. The South African exports surged higher over the previous month, whereas Turkish scrap imports declined during the month.

The trade statistics published by the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance (MoF) indicates that the country imported around 275,000 tons of scrap in January this year. This is significantly down by nearly 54% when compared with the corresponding month a year before. The imports were also down by 48.7% from the prior month. The value of imports totaled around $8.95 million, significantly down by 46.7% over the previous month.

Meantime, the temporary customs data suggests modest jump in scrap exports by South Africa in January 2019. The country exported around 31,000 tons of scrap during the opening month of the year, higher by 18% when compared with the exports of approximately 26,000 tons in the previous month. The primary destination of scrap exports from South Africa was India, which received around 23,000 tons. The exports to Pakistan and Bangladesh totaled around 5,000 tons and 2,400 tons respectively.

In accordance with TUIK data, the Turkish scrap imports totaled around 1.2 billion tons in Jan ’19, down by more than 26% over the year. Year-on-year, the import value recorded 24% decline. The U.S. was the top export destination. However, the exports to the U.S. witnessed significant decline by 25.11% year-on-year to total around 214,000 tons. The other major importers were the UK (192,000 tons), Russia (182,000 tons) and the Netherlands (156,000 tons).