Steel Scrap Exports by World Countries Leaped 4% in 2016

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The steel industry statistics released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) suggests that world steel scrap exports ended 4% higher in 2016, upon comparison with the previous year. The exports totaled 87.127 million tons (Mt) as compared with 83.848 Mt of scrap exported during 2015.

The largest exporter of scrap during the year was the EU-28 countries. The region’s export totaled 43.674 Mt, accounting for almost 50% of the total exports by the entire world. The yearly steel scrap exports improved marginally from 40.129 Mt in the entire year 2015. The largest exporters within the region were Germany (8.168 Mt), the UK (8.127 Mt), France (5.428 Mt) and the Netherlands (5.037 Mt). Meantime, the exports from Other European countries too were up from 1.582 Mt in 2015 to 1.702 Mt during the previous year.

The CIS region reported decline in exports over the year. The exports declined sharply by over 17% from 7.155 Mt to 5.917 Mt, mainly due to considerable drop in export volumes by Russia and Ukraine- the two major exporting countries. The Russian exports were down from 5.910 Mt to 5.406 Mt, whereas the exports by Ukraine dropped from 1.278 Mt in 2015 to as low as 273,000 tons in 2016. The other key exporting nation was Kazakhstan with 194,000 tons.

The exports by the North American region reported marginal increase during 2016 to total 17.842 Mt. The imports had totaled 17.482 Mt in 2015. US, the largest exporter accounted for bulk of the exports, shipping 13.23 Mt. Also, Canada exported 3.632 Mt off steel scrap during the year. The third largest exporter was Mexico with 416,000 tons.

On the other hand, South American steel scrap export volumes plunged in 2016. The exports totaled 942,000 tons. Brazil (611,000 tons) and Chile (221,000 tons) were the primary exporting nations.

The exports of steel scrap by Africa reported 35% decline year-on-year. The region’s exports totaled 1.282 Mt in 2016. The South African exports almost halved from 1.266 Mt in 2015 to 644,000 tons in 2016.

The Middle East region exported 1.518 Mt of steel scrap in 2016, marginally higher from 1.464 Mt exported in 2015. The key exporting countries in the region were the UAE (901,000 tons), Lebanon (248,000 tons) and Israel (201,000 tons).

The exports from Asian region totaled 12.039 Mt. Japan (8.706 Mt), Singapore (1.048 Mt), South Korea (559,000 tons) and Hong Kong (537,000 tons) were the primary exporters.

The Oceania region exports dropped modestly from 2.341 Mt in 2015 to 2.212 Mt in 2016. The largest exporter was Australia with 1.583 Mt, followed by New Zealand with exports of 609,000 tons.