Malaysia scrap imports hit nearly 6.5 year lows in August

By Anil Mathews (ScrapMonster Author)
November 27, 2015 02:35:57 AM
The latest import statistics released by the Malaysian government indicates that scrap imports by the country during Aug ’15 have plunged to the lowest levels since February 2009.Malaysia's scrap imports hit  nearly 6.5 year lows in August
BEIJING (Scrap Monster): The recently released imports statistics indicate that Malaysia’s scrap imports declined sharply year-on-year during the month of August this year. The imports plunged to the lowest levels since February 2009. The imports during the month were down significantly when matched with the previous year. The cumulative ferrous scrap imports by the country during the first eight months of the year were too down considerably, relative to the year before.

The scrap imports by Malaysia during the month of August alone totaled 14,733 tons. The imports were sharply down by 84.2% over the previous year. The imports plunged significantly by 21.1% when compared with 18,673 tons imported during July this year.

The largest supplier of ferrous scrap to Malaysia during August this year was the US. The scrap imports from the US totaled 5,609 tons, accounting for over 38% of the total ferrous scrap imports by Malaysia during the month. The second largest source of scrap imports by Malaysia during the month was Singapore. The scrap imports from Singapore totaled 4,326 tons during the month. In third place was Australia with 1,919 tons.

The country’s scrap imports during January to August this year totaled 352,165 tons. The imports during this period have witnessed sharp decline of 52.7% over the imports during the same period a year ago. The country’s scrap imports had totaled 745,055 tons during January to August in 2014. The scrap imports averaged nearly 44,000 tons during the first eight months of the year. The annualized scrap imports by the country are estimated to touch 530,000 during the entire year 2015.

The largest supplier of ferrous scrap to Malaysia during initial eight-month period in 2015 was Australia. The scrap imports from Australia dropped by nearly 19.2% year-on-year when matched with the imports of 142,805 tons during the corresponding period last year. The other key exporters of ferrous scrap to Malaysia during this period were the USA (82,214 tons, down 76.8% y-o-y), Singapore (80,033 tons, down 21.4%) and Japan (28,015 tons, up 1048.5%).