US Ferrous scrap export volumes through Oct ’15 declined 15.6%

By Paul Ploumis (ScrapMonster Author)

December 22, 2015 07:54:26 AM

SPOKANE (Scrap Monster): The scrap plastics export volume by the US gained significantly during the month of October this year when matched with the previous year. However, ferrous and aluminum scrap exports through the first ten months of the current year continued to decline. Meantime, paper scrap exports climbed higher marginally during the period.

Ferrous scrap exports declined sharply by 15.6% during the ten-month period through October ’15 to 10.90 million metric tons. The weighted average price during the ten-month period was sharply down by nearly 20% at $326 per metric ton.

The latest scrap export data released for the month of October ’15 indicates that scrap plastics export volumes increased sharply by 14.2% when compared with the previous month. The exports totaled 372.89 million pounds during the month. The exports were down by 19.1% when compared with the 460.93 million pounds exported during October ’14.

Also, the cumulative scrap plastics exports during the initial ten-month period of the year recorded marginal decline over the previous year. The exports during January to October in 2015 totaled 3.85 billion pounds, down 4.5% when compared with the corresponding ten-month period in 2014.

The weighted price of scrap plastic exports in Oct ‘15 stood at 17.51 cents per pound, slightly down by 3.6% over the previous month. The weighted price was down by 11.4% when compared with Oct ’14. The weighted price averaged at 18.14 during the first ten months of 2015, 8.7% down when compared with the previous year.

Recovered paper exports improved substantially by 3.4% to 16.43 million metric tons through Oct ’15. However, the weighted average price during the period declined by 5.2% to $157 per metric ton.

Also, aluminum scrap exports during January to October this year dropped significantly by 9.3% to 2.90 billion pounds. The weighted average price too dropped 4.4% year-on-year to 73 cents per pound.