Taiwan’s non-ferrous scrap imports, including copper, aluminium and zinc rose in January compared to the previous year levels according to official customs data.
Taiwan’s economic growth has sharply improved after COVID-19. In the final quarter of 2020, Taiwan’s GDP grew 4.94pc from the previous year which was the best quarterly performance in over a decade. Strong economic growth drove consumption of scrap and metals higher on the back of infrastructure, auto and other major sectors. Taiwan’s economy grew 2.98pc in 2020, outpacing China’s growth of 2.3pc, as per the official data release.
Copper Scrap Imports
Copper scrap imports in January 2021 grew by 5pc to 10,014mt from 9,528mt imported in the previous year, and up 30pc from December 2020. Top five countries Taiwan imported copper from were Thailand, China, Malaysia, US and Indonesia.
- Imports from Thailand were the highest at 1,372mt, up by 134pc from the prior-year period and up by 209pc from the previous month.
- Imports from China was at 1,358mt, up 7pc from the previous month, but down 11pc from Jan 2020.
- Imports from Malaysia jumped 30pc to 1,183mt from December but down 7pc from the same month previous year.
- In 2020, approximately 111,331mt of copper scrap was imported by Taiwan.
Aluminium and others
Aluminium scrap imports to Taiwan in January jumped 3pc to 9,254mt and up 13pc from the previous month. The US, Spain, Germany, Australia and Netherlands were the top exporting countries of aluminium scrap to Taiwan.
- Imports from the US were at 2,070mt, up 2pc from the prior month but down 33pc from prior-year period .
- Aluminium imports from Spain increased 80pc to 1,095mt from the prior-year period and 41pc from the previous month.
- Import from Germany doubled to 778mt in January from the prior month levels.
- In 2020, a total of 103,675mt of aluminium scrap were imported by Taiwan.
Taiwan imported about 543mt of zinc, up 38pc from both prior month and year. In 2020, a total of 2,793mt was imported. Taiwan is not a major importer of zinc scrap.