US aluminum scrap exports rose by 3.5pc in January from a year earlier, according to the latest US Census Bureau data.
Aluminum scrap exports increased to 146,241mt in January from 141,333mt a year earlier. Exports of other scrap material excluding used aluminum beverage cans (UBCs) or remelt scrap ingot (RSI) made up the majority of the total volume exported, according to the data.
UBC exports rose by 211pc to 7,385mt in January from a year earlier, even as exports of scrap other than UBCs or RSI—a category made up mostly of nonferrous shred zorba—remained almost flat during the period at around 132,105mt. RSI exports rose by 7.7pc to 6,750mt in January from 6,268mt a year earlier.
Malaysia remained the biggest importer of US aluminum scrap at 17,364mt, followed by Mexico, which imported 16,838mt in January. India imported 14,458mt, of which 10,856mt was UBCs scrap, making it the biggest importer of that grade in January.
Most other nonferrous scrap exports dropped in January, with copper declining 5.6pc to around 62,743mt from a year earlier, and zinc down by 3.3pc to 2,513mt. US nickel scrap exports also declined by 16.9pc to 3,143mt in January from a year earlier.
Aluminum imports fell 81.4pc in January to 10,031mt from 54,013mt a year earlier, as did lead batteries imports by 36.7pc to 162.6mt from 256.7mt. However, lead scrap imports rose by 206pc during the month to 534.7mt from a year earlier.