US steel scrap exports extend decline in April

By Paul Ploumis (ScrapMonster Author)

June 15, 2016 07:53:21 AM

ALBANY (Scrap Monster): The latest statistics released by the US Department of Commerce (DOC) indicates that steel scrap exports by the country continued to drop during the month of April this year. The exports had witnessed decline during March also.

As per government data, the country’s steel scrap exports totaled 969,409 tons during April this year. The exports dropped marginally by 2.6% when matched with the previous month. Year-on-year, the exports have recorded sharp decline of 16.9%. The US scrap exports had totaled 1.167 million tons during April 2015.

The largest export destination of US scrap during the month was Turkey. The exports to Turkey totaled 261,488 tons, accounting for nearly 27% share of US exports during the month. The exports to Turkey were down by 14% when matched with the previous year. However, the exports were up marginally by 5.5% from the previous month.

The US exported 125,816 tons of scrap to South Korea. The other key importers of US scrap were India (121,774 tons), Taiwan (97,979 tons) and Mexico (80,632 tons).

US Scrap Exports-Mar ’16

In March ’16, the US exported 995,288 tons of scrap. The exports dropped by 3.6% over the previous month and by 19.1% over the previous year. The total value of scrap exports amounted to $2.528 billion during the month, significantly down by 34% over the previous year.

The largest importer of US scrap during the month was Turkey. The imports of US scrap by the country dropped by 5.1% year-on-year to 247,891 tons. In second place was India with 150,381 tons, followed by Mexico (120,087 tons), Korea (107,750 tons) and Taiwan (105,007 tons).

US Scrap Exports-Feb ’16

The steel scrap exports totaled 1.033 million tons during the month.

The exports during Feb ’16 were up significantly by 86.9% when matched with the exports during the previous month. The exports increased marginally by over 4.8% when compared with 983,000 tons exported during February last year.

The largest export destination of US scrap was Turkey. The US scrap exports to Turkey totaled 262,057 tons during the month. The exports dropped sharply by 33% when compared with the same month a year before. Turkey had imported 391,000 tons of steel scrap from the US during February last year.

The second largest importer of US scrap was India. The scrap exports to India jumped significantly higher by 352% over the previous year to total 146,091 tons. The other key export destinations were Canada (97,030 tons, up 99% year-on-year), Taiwan (92,720 tons, down 26.7%) and South Korea (89,533 tons, up 344%).

US Scrap Exports-Jan ’16

The US scrap exports dropped sharply by 47% year-on-year to 552,559 tons during January this year. The scrap exports during the month were valued at $159.3 million. The value of exports tumbled by 56% over the year.

The largest importer of US scrap during the month was Turkey. The country imported 105,479 tons of US scrap. The other primary export destinations during the month were India (88,405 tons) and Mexico (63,691 tons).

Scrap Exports-2015

The annual scrap export volume by the US had touched 9-year lows in 2015. The exports totaled 12.976 million tons during the year, down by 15.4% relative to 2014. The country’s scrap exports had totaled 15.338 million tons in 2014.