Russia steel scrap exports see dramatic rise in February

By Anil Mathews (ScrapMonster Author)

April 26, 2016 06:05:59 AM

MOSCOW (Scrap Monster): The most recent trade statistics released by Russia indicates that the country’s steel scrap exports increased considerably during the month of February this year. The exports during the month stood higher when matched with those during the same month a year before. This is the second consecutive month that Russian steel scrap exports have gone higher.

The country’s scrap exports during the month of February alone totaled 418,000 tons. The exports witnessed marginal increase of nearly 8.3% year-on-year. The Russian scrap exports during February last year had totaled 386,000 tons. When matched with January this year, the scrap exports during Feb ‘16 were up sharply by nearly 2.5 times. Russia’s steel scrap exports during the first month of the current year had totaled only 178,000 tons.

The largest export destination of Russian scrap during February this year was Turkey. The Russian exports to Turkey totaled 214,000 tons, accounting for nearly 51.3% of the total Russian exports. The exports to Turkey increased sharply by 37.7% year-on-year. The second largest export destination was Belarus. The Russian exports to Belarus dropped marginally by 3.5% over the previous year to 66,000 tons. In third place was Korea with 54,000 tons. The Korean imports of Russian steel scrap in Feb ’16 increased sharply by almost 32.5% over the previous year.

According to trade data, Russia exported 596,000 tons of scrap during the initial two months in 2016. The country’s average monthly scrap exports amounted to 298,000 tons. The Russian steel scrap exports are expected to total around 3.6 million tons during the entire year 2016.