South Korea’s aluminum scrap imports rose by 12.6pc to 438,778mt in the first five months of 2021 from 389,837mt in the same period of last year.
In May, imports rose 17pc to 86,335mt from 73,999mt in the prior year period and fell by 6pc from 91,698mt in the prior month.
The US remained the largest exporter of aluminum scrap to South Korea, despite a 17pc decline in shipments from the country to 19,189mt in May when compared to 23,099mt in the same month last year. The second largest exporter of aluminum scrap to the country was Japan, despite a 16pc decline to 8,054mt from 9,622mt within the same period.
Copper scrap
Copper scrap imports to South Korea, however, declined by 7.35pc in January-May to 138,229mt against 148,388mt during the same timeframe in 2020. South Korea’s copper scrap imports rose by 34pc in May to 30,385mt from 22,630mt in the same month last year.
The US also was the largest exporter of copper scrap to South Korea with a 3pc increase to 6,785mt in May from 6,600mt in May 2020. Saudi Arabia was the second largest copper scrap exporter to the country, with a 394pc increase to 2,777mt from 562mt in the same time frame. Taiwan joined South Korea’s list of copper scrap exporters in May after exporting 1,537mt of scrap.