Aluminum scrap exports from the US increased by 5.9pc to 173,033mt in March compared with 163,405mt a year earlier, according to the latest data from the US Census Bureau.
Used beverage can (UBC) shipments stood at 19,078mt in March, up by 126pc compared with 8,410mt a year ago. Export batches also consisted of 6,171mt of remelt scrap ingots (RSI), up by 17pc annually. Shipments of other scrap aluminum tallied at 147,782mt, down 1.3pc from a year ago. This segment mostly consists of non-ferrous zorba.
Mexico was the largest importer of UBCs in March, accepting 7,293mt of this grade of aluminum scrap with Canada and Brazil following at 4,309mt and 3,000mt, respectively.
Other US nonferrous scrap exports rose in March as well, with copper up 20.4pc to 77,167mt from a year earlier while zinc scrap exports also increased by 8.8pc at 3,146mt. Lead shipments were up by 17.2pc to 7,234mt.