India's scrap imports surged in Oct '14

NEW DELHI (Scrap Monster): The scrap imports by India during the month of October last year increased considerably when compared with the previous month. The scrap imports stood higher when matched with same month the previous year. However, the cumulative scrap imports by the country during initial ten-month period of the year were slightly down over the previous year.

According to trade data, India imported 654,000 tons of scrap during October 2014. This is nearly 25% higher when compared with the imports of 523,200 tons during the previous month. The scrap imports during the month almost doubled when compared with the imports during Oct ’13. The country’s exports have surged by nearly 95% over the year in Oct ‘14.

In Oct ‘14, the UAE was the main exporter of scrap to India. The scrap imports from the UAE totaled 275,000 tons, accounting for over 42% of the total imports by India during the month. The scrap imports from the UAE were up nearly 5.7 times when compared with the same month a year ago.

The second largest source of scrap imports by India was South Africa. The scrap imports from South Africa during Oct ’14 totaled 83,000 tons, up by over 60% when compared with the previous year. The scrap imports from South Africa constituted 13% of Indian imports.

The UK was the third largest ferrous scrap exporter to India during the month. The scrap imports from the region soared significantly higher during Oct ‘14. The UK exported 57,000 tons of scrap into India. The scrap imports from the region surged higher by 89.3% when compared with the previous year.

The cumulative scrap imports by India during the initial ten months in 2014 totaled 4.71 million tons, dropping by 8.2% when compared with the imports during the corresponding ten-month period in 2013.

The annual scrap imports by the country during 2014 are estimated to total 5.7 million tons.