Ferrous scrap imports in South Korea decreased by 2pc to 368,552mt in February compared to 375,742mt in the same month last year, according to the country’s Customs data. Its ferrous scrap imports were 41pc higher in February from 217,945mt in the previous month.
South Korea’s imports from Thailand in February continued to trend up at 8,247mt, a 73pc increase from 4,764mt from the prior year and 50pc higher than 5,514mt in January.
The country’s shipments from Taiwan quadrupled last month to 5,745mt from 1,427mt in February 2020 and were 65pc higher from 3,491mt in January. In terms of volumes, Japan and the USA remained the biggest scrap exporters to South Korea at 256,141mt and 43,611mt, respectively.
Japanese scrap imports increased by 69pc in February from 151,493mt in the previous month but were down by 4pc from 266,323mt in February 2020. Scrap imports from the USA were five times more than 8,279mt in January but 1pc lower from 43,869mt in February 2020.
South Korea’s February scrap imports from Russia decreased by 8pc to 42,559mt from 46,449mt in the same month last year. On a monthly basis, imports from Russia rose by 11pc from 38,363mt in January. Imports from Mexico declined by 30pc to 1,018mt from 1,461mt last year and were 46pc lower from 1,891mt in the previous month.
The country’s aluminum scrap imports in February were 6pc higher than the previous year at 81,461mn mt. For the full-year 2020, aluminum imports tallied at 76,949mn mt. South Korea’s February 2021 copper scrap imports were 24pc higher than last year at 24,734mt with imports of the red metal in 2020 totaling 32,413mt.