Turkey Accounted for 58% of Total EU-28 Ferrous Scrap Exports in 2016

By Paul Ploumis

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The EU-28 nations’ ferrous scrap exports totaled around 18 million metric tons (MT) during the entire year 2016. The export volumes reported significant improvement when compared with the prior year. However, the exports were significantly lower when matched with 2012 levels, when it had totaled 19.543 MT. Turkey continued to be the key export destination for EU-28 ferrous scrap exports, accounting for 58% share of total yearly exports by the region.

The ferrous scrap exports by the EU-28 countries totaled 17.771 million metric tons in 2016. When compared with 2015, the exports were up significantly by 29%. The EU-28 ferrous scrap exports had totaled only 13.763 million metric tons in 2015. The table below provides the EU-28 export details for the past five years.

The key destination of EU-28 exports in 2016 was Turkey. The scrap exports to Turkey totaled 10.377 million metric tons, accounting for 58.4% share of total EU-28 exports. The scrap exports to Turkey increased by over 28% year-on-year. The EU scrap exports to turkey had totaled only 8.079 million MT in 2015. The second largest importer during the year was India. The country accounted for nearly 10% share of total EU exports. Year-on-year, the exports to India surged higher by 20.7% from 1.452 million MT in 2015 to 1.752 million MT in 2016. In third place was Pakistan with imports of 1.356 million MT. The exports to that country recorded notable increase of 37% from the previous year. Pakistan had imported 992,606 metric tons of ferrous scrap from EU-28 region in 2015.

The country to report largest increase in year-on-year increase in scrap import volume from the EU-28 region was Indonesia. The exports to Indonesia skyrocketed by more than 1500% from 8,517 metric tons in 2015 to 140,179 metric tons in 2016. The exports to Thailand soared by 700% over the previous year. The imports from the EU-28 countries by Thailand totaled 18,776 MT in 2016 as compared with 2,343 MT in 2015. Vietnam reported 328% rise in import volumes from EU-28 countries during the year.

Albania’s ferrous scrap imports from the EU-28 region reported sharpest decline of 99.3% in 2016. The ferrous scrap exports to that country dropped sharply from 4,024 MT in 2015 to just 28 MT in 2016. The exports to Serbia too plunged heavily by 94.7% over the previous year. Meantime, EU-28 ferrous scrap exports to South Korea dropped sharply by 74% over the year. The other countries which witnessed decline in scrap import volume from EU-28 region were Hong Kong (-57.9%), Morocco (-51.9%) and Oman (-46.3%).