Steel Scrap Consumption Declined in First Half 2019

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The volume of steel scrap consumed by steelmaking industry reported decline during the initial half of the current year, says the latest statistics published by the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) . This is mainly on account of the fall in steel output by major producing countries in various regions.

The scrap consumption by the EU region recorded marginal decline by 1.3% to 46.783 million tonnes in Jan-June ’19, upon comparison with H1 2018. It must be noted that the region’s steel production dropped by 2.5% year-on-year. Turkey- the major regional steel producer saw its crude steel output dropping by more than 10%. Consequently, the Turkish scrap usage recorded 12.2% decline over the previous year.

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On the contrary, the Chinese steel scrap consumption surged higher by 20.7% to 103.28 million tonnes in H1 2019. During the similar period in 2018, the country’s steelmaking operations had accounted for scrap consumption of 85.57 million tonnes. The government push to boost EAF-based steelmaking resulted in increased usage of scrap in the country. The country continued to remain as the world’s largest steel scrap consumer.

Also, the U.S. scrap consumption edged higher by 5.1% on the year to total 24.9 million tonnes in the first half of 2019. The U.S. steel output growth, triggered by higher steel import tariffs by the trump administration, contributed to the higher scrap usage. The U.S. crude steel production was up by 5.4% in Jan-June ’19.