Page 81 from: October 2013

81October 2013

Ferrous

of the month to almost Yen 33 000
(equivalent to US$ 336 at the time of
writing), according to the Japan Fer-
rous Raw Materials Association. Mean-
while, Tokyo Steel is paying a top rate
of Yen 35 000 per tonne for deliveries
to its Utsunomiya works and
Yen 34 000-34 500 for scrap arriving
at its other plants.
Taiwan has taken more of a back seat
in the marketplace owing to reduced
demand for finished steel both at home
and in regional markets. Latest price
indications suggest HMS I/II 80/20
from the USA attracting US$ 340-345
per tonne – or US$ 15-20 less than a
few weeks earlier.

Rupee weakness
The aforementioned ‘Mirror’ publica-
tion from the BIR world recycling
organisation highlighted how the
recent weakness of the rupee has dev-
astated the Indian scrap import market,
cutting incoming volumes to 1.3 mil-
lion tonnes in April-June this year from
a record 6.9 million tonnes in the pre-
ceding 12 months. More recent statis-
tics tell the same story: shipment of

ferrous scrap from America to India
slumped to 33 445 tonnes in July this
year from 106 501 tonnes in the same
month in 2012. Compared to June,
India’s imports of US ferrous scrap
were more than 45% lower the follow-
ing month.
Meanwhile, US exporters shipped
slightly more than 1.2 million tonnes
to all destinations in July – well down
on the 1.94 million tonnes supplied in
the corresponding month of last year.
Deliveries to Turkey tumbled from
609 343 tonnes to 374 092 tonnes
while volumes sent to Taiwan plum-
meted from 354 349 tonnes in July
2012 to 209 308 tonnes this time
round. A steep decline was also seen
in South Korean imports of US scrap,
with the total slumping almost 60%
year on year to 62 369 tonnes.
Combining figures for the first seven
months of 2013, the USA exported
11.12 million tonnes of ferrous scrap
for a year-on-year drop of 15.7% from
the 13.19 million tonnes of January-
July last year.
Compared to July this year, China’s fer-
rous scrap imports jumped more than

50 000 tonnes in August to 335 922
tonnes despite the fact that deliveries
from leading supplier Japan edged 3%
lower to just over 196 000 tonnes.
Having supplied China with less than
30 000 tonnes of ferrous scrap in July,
the USA upped its exports to almost
102 000 tonnes the following month,
Chinese customs figures suggest. On a
year-on-year basis, China’s ferrous
scrap imports from all destinations
were 14.2% lower in August.

Competing commodities
September proved to be a relatively
sedate month for iron ore valuations,
with prices of 63.5% Fe fines spending
the entire period locked in the US$ 130-
140 per tonne price band on a cfr China
basis. The month began with values just
short of US$ 140 per tonne and ended
at around US$ 131 as Chinese buying
interest waned ahead of the country’s
National Day holidays.
Having topped 73 million tonnes in
July, China’s iron ore imports retreated
to a still-mighty 69 million tonnes the
following month for a year-on-year

increase of more than 10%, latest cus-
toms statistics confirm. Slightly more
than half the incoming volume (34.84
million tonnes) originated in Australia
while Brazil supplied a shade below
13.6 million tonnes and South Africa
3.58 million tonnes. Compared to last
year, China’s coking coal imports sky-
rocketed more than 145% in August
to a little under 6.3 million tonnes, the
customs figures also reveal. Australia
was again the leading provider by a
clear margin on 2.48 million tonnes.

Steel
With 2013 world crude steel produc-
tion smashing through the one-billion-
tonne barrier in August, it was the
performance of the EU-27 that caught
the eye – and on this occasion, for
positive reasons. After a prolonged
period of negative growth, the region
produced more crude steel in August
than in the same month of 2012: the
total of 12.034 million tonnes repre-
sented a year-on-year upturn of 1.3%
although the eight-month cumulative
figure of 109.299 million tonnes was

The USA easily maintained its posi-
tion as the world’s leading exporter
of steel scrap despite its overseas
shipments slumping 12% to 9.922
million tonnes in the first half of
2013. EU exports fell even more
sharply – by 21.5% to 8.145 million
tonnes, according to the latest
‘World Steel Recycling in Figures’
update from the BIR Ferrous Divi-
sion’s statistics advisor Rolf Willeke.
The export fraternity was hit hard by
the steel scrap consumption decline
in Turkey as the world’s leading
importer slashed its overseas pur-
chases by 18.2% in January-June
this year to 9.273 million tonnes
although, in proportional terms,
India’s imports tumbled by an even
more dramatic 19.4% to 3.457 mil-
lion tonnes over the same period –
not least because of the weakness
of the rupee.

China’s usage of steel scrap in its
production of crude steel jumped
5.1% to 43.4 million tonnes in the
first half of this year although its
imports fell 8.5% to 2.56 million
tonnes. Also, steel scrap consump-
tion in South Korea climbed 1.5% to
16.6 million tonnes despite a 5.3%
drop in its crude steel production.
Generally, however, the opening
half-year of 2013 saw reductions in
steel scrap usage across most of the
leading consuming nations. The
7.8% decline in the EU-27 gave a
total of 46.1 million tonnes while
the USA reported a drop of 8.7% to
26.1 million tonnes. Consumption
also fell in Turkey (-7.9% to 15.1
million tonnes), Russia (-12.9% to
8.3 million tonnes) and Japan (-2%
to 18.6 million tonnes), although
Japanese crude steel production
actually climbed 1.2%.

Sharp fall in US and EU exports

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