EU-27 steel scrap exports down

The EU-27 registered an 18.7% decline in its overseas recycled steel shipments to 7.359 million tonnes in the first six months of 2024 but retained its position as the world’s top exporter, according to worldsteel data presented at the latest BIR convention in Singapore.

The main buyers were Turkey (-17.6% to 4.648 million tonnes), Egypt (-7.5% to 0.594 million tonnes) and India (-38.6% to 0.450 million tonnes).

USA biggest exporter

Despite a decline in recycled steel shipments in the first half of 2024 (-16.4% to 7.197 million tonnes), the USA remained the world’s second-largest recycled steel exporter. The biggest buyers of US material were Turkey (+4.9% to 2.142 million tonnes), Mexico (-46.2% to 1.152 million tonnes) and Bangladesh (+35.6% to 0.911 million tonnes).

More scrap from Mexico

Declines in recycled steel shipments were also recorded by Japan (-4.6% to 1.599 million tonnes), the UK (-7.8% to 1.567 million tonnes) and Canada (-4.5% to 1.161 million tonnes). By contrast, the first half of this year saw increases in recycled steel exports from Australia (+43.7% to 1.285 million tonnes), Hong Kong (+24.6% to 0.587 million tonnes), Mexico (+31.3% to 0.551 million tonnes) and Singapore (+19.4% to 0.424 million tonnes).

EU and US export prices for recycled steel followed a largely parallel course in January-June 2024.