The US Exported 20% More Copper Waste and Scrap in Jan-Aug '17

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The latest trade statistics published by the US Census Bureau indicates considerable increase in the country’s exports of copper waste and scrap during the initial eight-month period of the current year. The exports surged higher by 20% to $1.74 billion during this period, as compared with the exports of $1.45 billion during the corresponding eight months of 2016. The exports had amounted to $2.23 billion during the entire year 2016.

The top five destinations of US copper waste and scrap exports were China, Canada, Germany, South Korea and Japan. The exports to the above five foreign markets totaled $1.48 billion, which accounted for 85% of all copper waste and scrap exports by the US through August 2017.

The key importer of copper waste and scrap from the US was China. The country’s import volumes amounted to $1.053 billion, accounting for 60.7% of the total US shipments. The exports to China surged higher by over 21% when compared with the previous year. The imports by Canada totaled $194.2 million, rising sharply by nearly 54% from the year before. In third place was Germany with imports from the US amounting to $90.8 million. The country’s import volumes from the US increased modestly by nearly 13% over the year. The exports to South Korea and Japan totaled $78.6 million and $59.9 million respectively.

The top five Customs districts in terms of shipment volumes were Los Angeles, New York City, Norfolk, Detroit and San Francisco. Among these districts, Los Angeles accounted for more than 30% of all shipments, followed by New York City and Norfolk with market shares of 14.6% and 6.9% respectively. These five Customs districts accounted for 62% of exports of copper waste and scrap from the US during Jan-August ’17.

Meantime, imports of copper waste and scrap by the US skyrocketed during the initial eight months of 2017. The imports were up sharply by 73% from $283.71 million in Jan-August ’16 to $491.58 million through the first eight months of 2017. It must be noted that the imports were valued at $458.38 million during the entire year 2016.

The leading supplier of copper waste and scrap to the US was Canada. The imports from Canada totaled $335.5 million, accounting for approximately 68.25% of total imports. The imports from the Mexico and Venezuela totaled $115.4 million and $6.1 million respectively. Panama ($5.9 million) and Colombia ($4.6 million) were the other leading exporters of copper waste and scrap to the US. The exports by the above five countries accounted for nearly 95% of the total imports by the US during the initial eight-month period of 2017.

The top five Customs districts in terms of inward shipment volume of copper waste and scrap were Buffalo, Detroit, Laredo, El Paso and Ogdensburg, NY. The cumulative imports through these top five Customs districts amounted to $419.37 million.