Fluctuations in ferrous scrap prices resulted in a relative premium in August compared to metal recycling data from an earlier period this year. Against the backdrop of rising prices for pig iron, manufacturers have paid more attention to ferrous metals reception and their processing, as stated in the latest report from Recycling International.
Despite a noticeable increase in secondary global production from non-ferrous scrap, copper production is in deficit compared to the corresponding period in 2015, as noted in its latest statistical analysis by the International Copper Study Group (ICSG). In addition, the processing of aluminum, lead and scrap of other non-ferrous metals suggests further expansion. At the same time, some countries introduce certain bans on the export of ferrous and non-ferrous metal scrap, including Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. This is due to the shortage of scrap metal for the domestic consumption of domestic metallurgy.
The leading international scrap metal market, Turkey, experienced stagnation in the first months of 2016. Many factories were reluctant to buy scrap metal for most of the period due to difficult conditions for selling finished steel. In fact, only a minimum of cargo was traded between Europe and Turkey in the first half of August. However, orders for September picked up pace at the end of August. At the same time, from American suppliers at a price of about $ 227-228 per tonne of HMS I /II 80/20 scrap and $ 5 more for shredded scrap, while their colleagues in Europe supply at $ 222-223 for mixtures of 8 0/20.
World Steel Association statistics show that all four of Asia's top producers have increased their crude steel output as reported in the last months of 2016, and most of them have increased their use of scrap in steel production. Even for the production of medals for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, organizers are considering recycling Japan's vast stocks of electronic scrap, including millions of discarded smartphones and computer hardware. The organizers claim that Japan extracts 143 kg of gold, 1566 kg of silver and 1112 tons of copper from its discarded electronics per year.
