India’s steel scrap imports surged 27% in November

NEW DELHI (Scrap Monster): The latest statistics released by the Directorate General of Commerce Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S) under the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, indicate that the country’s ferrous scrap surged higher significantly during November last year, in comparison with the prior month. This is the second straight month of increase in scrap imports by the country. The combined imports during the initial eleven months of 2016 were marginally up year-on-year.

India imported 482,213 tons of scrap steel during the month of November last year. The imports increased sharply by 26.7% when matched with the month before that. The country had imported 380,642 tons of scrap steel during October 2016. When compared with the year before, the November ’16 imports were down sharply by 23.5%. The country’s ferrous scrap imports had totaled 630,343 tons during November 2015.

The largest exporter of ferrous scrap to India during November last year was the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The imports from the UAE totaled 80,640 tons, accounting for nearly 17% of the total scrap imports by India during the month. The imports from the country witnessed marginal rise from the previous month imports of 79,843 tons. The UK was the second largest exporter during the month, with 64,759 tons. The ferrous scrap imports from the UK surged higher by nearly 40% over the previous month. The other key exporters of ferrous scrap to India during the month were the USA (45,586 tons), South Africa (34,668 tons), Singapore (27,722 tons), Netherlands (22,619 tons) and Thailand (18,950 tons).

The country’s scrap imports during January to November last year totaled 5.748 million tons. The imports during this period have witnessed marginal decline of 2.3% over the imports during the same period a year ago. The country’s scrap imports had totaled 5.883 million tons during January to November in 2015. The scrap imports averaged nearly 522,570 tons during the first eleven months of the year. The annualized scrap imports by the country are estimated to surpass 6.25 million tons during the entire year 2016.

The largest supplier of ferrous scrap to India during the initial eleven-month period in 2016 was the USA. The scrap imports from the US increased considerably by 23.8% year-on-year to 908,423 tons when matched with the imports of 733,979 tons during the corresponding period in 2015. The imports from the US accounted for 15.8% of the total imports by India during this period, as compared with the 12.5% share in 2015. The other leading exporters of ferrous scrap to India during the initial eleven-month period in 2016 were the UK (840,999 tons, 14.6% share, up 8.9% year-on-year), the UAE (828,029 tons, 14.4% share, down 5%), South Africa (297,752 tons, 5.2% share, down 61%), Singapore (288,890 tons, 5.0% share, down 8.5%) and Australia (253,372 tons, 4.4% share of total imports, down 13.3%).

The imports from Hong Kong recorded highest jump during Jan-Nov ’16. The imports from the country surged higher by nearly 788% over the previous year. Chile (+134.7%), Belgium (+117.1%) and Poland (+88.9%) too reported notable rise in scrap export volume to India. On the other hand, imports from South Africa declined the most during this period. The scrap imports from the country reported 61.1% year-on-year decline. The other countries to report significant decline in import volumes were Togo (-42.1%), Kuwait (-40.3%) and Germany (-33.7%).

The table below provides the tonnage of ferrous scrap import by India during the initial eleven months of 2016.