Consumption of scrap metal in the world fell in the first half of this year by 8.4% compared to the same period last year – to 248.789 million tons, following the downward trend in steel production, the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) reported.
At the same time, it is specified that the largest consumer of steel scrap – China – over this period reduced scrap consumption by 13.8% – to 119.55 million tons, the share of scrap in the production of crude steel decreased to 22.7%.
In the second largest user, the EU, scrap use fell 3.2% to an estimated 43.856 million tonnes, while first-half US scrap use fell 3% year-on-year to 22.5 million tonnes.
The consumption of scrap metal in Turkey in the first half of the year decreased by 3% – to 12.480 million tons, the share of steel scrap in the production of crude steel was 87.1%.
BIR notes that Turkey remains the world’s largest importer of scrap steel, importing 2.23 million tons from the US, 1.16 million tons from the Netherlands and 1.135 million tons from the UK.
The second largest importer – South Korea – imported 2.72 million tons of scrap in the first half of the year, which is 29.1% more than in the previous period, while supplies from Japan amounted to 1.7 million tons, the United States – 399 thousand tons and Russia – 226 thousand tons.
India imported 2.67 million tons of scrap metal in the first half of the year, up 0.3%, of which 711 thousand tons from the UAE, 208 thousand tons from the United States and 170 thousand tons from Singapore.
Scrap metal imports also increased to Thailand, Indonesia and Norway in the first half of the year, but fell to the US, EU and Taiwan, BIR reported.
The largest exporter of scrap in the first half of the year is the United States, deliveries amounted to 8.87 million tons. Its main buyers were Mexico (2.005 million tons), Turkey (2 million tons), Bangladesh (900 thousand tons) and South Korea (357 thousand tons).
EU scrap metal exports fell 23.9% to 8.5 million tons, with Turkey (5.8 million tons), Egypt (625 thousand tons) and Switzerland (318 thousand tons) being the main destinations.
