South Korea’s ferrous scrap exports rose by 22.8pc to 141,381mt in January-April from 109,112mt in the same period of 2020. Ferrous scrap imports during the same four months under comparison declined by 30.5pc to 1.31mn mt from 1.71mn mt.
In April, ferrous scrap exports increased by 322pc to 59,689mt from 14,129mt in the same month last year, according to the country’s customs data. Imports, however, decreased by 6pc to 411,892mt from 439,180mt in the same timeframe.
China was the biggest importer of ferrous scrap from South Korea with a 15 times increase in volume to 28,089mt in April from 1,653mt in the previous year. India, which was the leading importer of Korean scrap last April fell to second place despite tripling its imports from last year with shipments of 16,073mt compared to 3,888mt in April 2020.
In terms of growth, Thailand’s ferrous scrap imports from South Korea rose over six times to 6,641mt last month from 947mt in April 2020.Exports to Indonesia declined by 76pc to 472mt in April from 1,957mt last year while Vietnam’s imports from South Korea fell by 56pc to 354mt from 802mt in the same month under review.
At 273,373mt, Japan remained the biggest ferrous scrap exporter to South Korea in April despite a 1pc decline from 277,384mt exported in the same month last year. USA’s exports to South Korea also declined by 16pc to 83,477mt from 98,902mt in the same time frame. However, exports from New Zealand, which has not previously shipped any ferrous scrap to South Korea last April, increased to 14,298mt last month.