BIR releases Non-Ferrous World Mirror March 2016

By Carolina Curiel (ScrapMonster Author)

April 05, 2016 03:26:33 AM

BRUSSELS (Scrap Monster): The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) has released the March 2016 edition of the Non-Ferrous World Mirror.

According to Ma Hongchang, BIR’s advisor on local policy and regulatory developments, labour costs have increased significantly in China. This has resulted in shifting of a few lower-end projects to other developing countries. The country’s copper imports surged by over 50% in February this year to total 420,000 tonnes. Meantime, official data indicates that the country imported 3.658 million tons of scrap copper, 2.087 million tons of scrap aluminium and 21 700 tons of scrap zinc during the entire year 2015.

Rise in LME copper and aluminium prices resulted in trade of ‘frozen’ tonnages in Germany. Meantime, scrap processors in the country reported shortage of scrap availability. The availability of scrap remained scarce in France. The margins too continued to remain thin. A few scrap dealers sold a portion of their inventory during the recent rally in LME prices. Scrap volumes remained low in the UK. The mild winter conditions have failed to generate large volumes of scrap in the Benelux countries.

Nordic countries reported relatively good trading activity in non-ferrous scrap trading during recent weeks. The flow of scrap materials has shown significant improvement, with market showing interest to initiate trade at current price levels.

According to reports, Russian government plans to impose restrictions on the number of ports from which non-ferrous scrap can be shipped out of the country. Elsewhere in India, the government has reduced import duty on brass scrap from 5% to 2.5%. The country’s non-ferrous trade remained relatively busy.

In the US, supply of physical copper scrap remained extremely tight. Aluminium scrap and secondary aluminium ingot prices increased during recent weeks. The limited scrap availability in Mexico was balanced by increased imports of scrap from the US.

The non-ferrous markets in the Middle East remained buoyant on higher LME prices. The scrap exports from the region have reported significant improvement during the first quarter of the current year. On the other hand, South Africa reported slow business activity during the quarter.