World Mirror Aluminum and Copper Recycling Report

The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) has published the latest issue of the World Mirror on the non-ferrous scrap market. According to the report, in recent months. However, there are reported shortages of high quality scrap aluminum and copper.

Aluminum alloys can be processed without loss of mechanical and physical properties. In the future, the share of recycled aluminum alloys in the aluminum industry will continue to grow steadily, since duralumin plate , aluminum sheet, aluminum circle and hexagon will expand the application in various industries.

Since the total supply of the global aluminum market is expected to grow from 70.37 million tonnes in 2015 to 88.97 million tonnes by 2020, the increase will average almost 5%. This will increase the recycling of aluminum. Recently, Ukraine has imposed export duties of 30 euros per tonne for scrap metal. Reports indicate that Kazakhstan may impose export restrictions on certain types of scrap.

Japan recorded a significant decrease in domestic demand for aluminum scrap. As a result, its exports of scrap aluminum to other countries such as South Korea and China have had a huge jump in volume. According to statistics published by the Ministry of Finance, the export of aluminum scrap in the country in the first half of this year increased by 2% compared to the previous year and amounted to 81,551 tons.

The United States has reported an acute deficiency of aluminum. Seasonal weakness in demand from the auto industry kept the overall demand for scrap aluminum in Mexico low. The presence of primary aluminum and large volumes of scrap imports also led to a sharp drop in demand for its own aluminum scrap in the country.

Domestic scrap aluminum prices in India have declined. Trade margins in copper fell to almost zero. The decline in prices has resulted in low margins for most of the secondary market players in China. Data released by the Chinese customs authorities show that the country processed 8.76 million tonnes of non-ferrous metals during 2015, up 10% from a year earlier. The total value of recycled non-ferrous metals rose 14% to 139.56 billion yuan. Meanwhile, imports of non-ferrous scrap across the country fell 6.7% year-on-year to 5.767 million tonnes throughout 2015.

The latest report released by TechNavio predicts a 5% growth in the global non-ferrous metals market from 2016 to 2020. According to the report, the volume of the global copper market will grow by an average of more than 5% to 38 million tons by 2020.