Europe targets Asia and Africa for scrap metal exports

Dutch and Belgian exports of scrap metal to Asia and Africa continued to grow between January and June. As exporters sought further diversification as an alternative to the increasingly volatile Turkish market.

Turkey remained the biggest buyer, but its imports fell to 2.28 million tonnes from 2.35 million tonnes a year earlier. This decline may largely be the result of declining exports and domestic demand for steel in the Turkish market. This fact has led Turkish steel producers to decrease steel production. And, consequently, to reduce the demand for scrap from abroad.

This increase in demand and price volatility for steel scrap imported by Turkey has led Dutch and Belgian exporters to look for alternatives. In some of the fastest-growing steel-producing regions, such as Asia and Africa.

Steel production in Asia, excluding China, Japan and South Korea increased by 5.9% to 149.5 billion tonnes in 2018 from 141.2 billion tonnes in 2017, while production in Africa increased by more than 17% to 17.4 billion tonnes.

Most of the increase in Dutch and Belgian shipments to Africa came from sales to Egypt. Where the implementation of anti-dumping duties on imports of rebar from China, Turkey and Ukraine in 2017 supported a rapid increase in Egyptian rebar production a year later.

Egypt is the largest steel-producing country in Africa. And it imported almost 520,000 tons of scrap from the Netherlands between January and June. Compared to just over 370,000 tons in the previous year.

Exports of metal scrap are on the rise

Exports of Dutch and Belgian ferrous scrap to Asia totaled 511,000 tons. In the first six months of this year, up by 30%. These were largely directed to the markets of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Taiwan.

The Netherlands and other European regions exporting ferrous scrap could continue to look for alternative sales destinations. Because it is still expected that the demand and prices for metal scrap imported by Turkey will not see a sustainable recovery in the near future.

Article source: https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/1991647-europe-looks-to-asia-africa-to-diversify-scrap-exports