Taiwan’s ferrous scrap imports fell by 45pc in December to 211,811mt from a year ago and was down by 27pc in Q4 pressured by rising price of scrap, container shortages and vessel delays. Ferrous scrap import in Q4 was 6,87,354mt. Despite the challenging market conditions, for the full year 2020, import rose by 3pc to 3.317mn mt from 2019.
In December, imports from top exporter US fell by 53pc to 87,245mt in December, followed by 46,947mt imports from Japan, down by 52pc drop from a year ago. Taiwanese buyers also increased purchase of South American-origin scrap to avoid high offers quoted by US and Japanese suppliers. Imports from countries like Costa Rica and Venezuela rose more than 100pc from a year ago.
| Taiwan’s ferrous scrap import in December (mt) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top exporters | Dec-20 | Nov-20 | Change MoM | Dec-19 | Change YoY |
| US | 87,245 | 96,174 | -9% | 1,85,261 | -53% |
| Japan | 46,947 | 51,674 | -9% | 98,241 | -52% |
| Canada | 17,262 | 10,527 | 64% | 22,595 | -24% |
| Dominican Rep. | 8,769 | 10,563 | -17% | 9,156 | -4% |
| Australia | 8,682 | 8,507 | 2% | 15,794 | -45% |
| Hong Kong | 8,075 | 7,448 | 8% | 6,069 | 33% |
| Mexico | 4,215 | 3,017 | 40% | 4,848 | -13% |
| Costa Rica | 4,021 | 3,589 | 12% | 1,973 | 104% |
| Venezuela | 3,173 | 5,178 | -39% | 1,250 | 154% |
| Others | 23,422 | 27,498 | -15% | 41,386 | -43% |
| Total | 2,11,811 | 2,24,175 | -6% | 3,86,573 | -45% |
On a full year basis, total scrap imports from the US dropped by 10 to 1.532mn mt, while imports from Japan grew by 75pc to 1.100mn mt as Taiwanese buyers cut delivery time by booking more scrap from Japan and Australia. Import of scrap from Australia rose to 176,982mt in 2020, up by 31pc from 2019.