Turkey and India dent uptrend in US ferrous scrap exports

Global – Despite significantly stronger crude steel production in Turkey this year, the country’€™s imports of US ferrous scrap remain well short of the pace set in 2016: the 1.342 million tonnes acquired in the first half of 2017 was 7.2% shy of the 1.446 million tonnes of January-June last year.

However, latest statistics from the US Census Bureau and US International Trade Commission confirm that American ferrous scrap exports to all destinations soared 20.5% in the opening six months of the current year to 6.178 million tonnes from 5.127 million tonnes in last year’s corresponding period.

Attracted partly by a weaker US dollar, the main architects of this buying surge were customers in Mexico (+40.5% to 859 520 tonnes), Taiwan (+37.2% to 723 462 tonnes) and China (+269.4% to 385 205 tonnes).

Significantly increased purchases of US ferrous scrap were also made in the first half of 2017 by Canada (+84.5% to 334 527 tonnes), Vietnam (+424.6% to 304 189 tonnes) and Pakistan (+56.2% to 299 691 tonnes).

Apart from Turkey, India was the only other major consumer of US scrap to buy less than in the first half of 2016, slashing its order by 45% to 336 715 tonnes.