Aluminum scrap exports from the US increased by 5pc to 153,557mt in January compared with 146,241mt a year earlier, according to the latest data from the US Census Bureau.
Used beverage can (UBC) shipments stood at 16,171mt in January, up by 119pc from 7,385mt a year ago. Export batches also consisted of 4,176mt of remelt scrap aluminum, down by 38pc annually. Shipments of other scrap aluminum tallied at 133,209mt, up by 0.8pc from a year ago. This segment mostly consists of non-ferrous zorba.
Malaysia was the largest importer in January, accepting 32,182mt of aluminum scrap with India and South Korea following at 24,066mt and 22,891mt, respectively.
Other US nonferrous scrap exports rose in December as well, with copper up 2.1pc to 64,037mt from a year earlier while zinc scrap was flat at at 2,514mt. Nickel and lead shipments fell by 62pc and 27pc to 1,202mt and 4,834mt, respectively.