US ferrous scrap exports surged by 72pc on an annual basis in January, driven by substantial volume increases to Malaysia and Turkey.
Exports rose to 1.5mn mt in January from 866,518mt a year earlier, according to data released by the US Census Bureau. Ferrous scrap exports from the US to Malaysia increased by 540pc to 365,904mt in during the month from 57,130mt during the prior year month. Turkey imported 343,184mt of US ferrous scrap, rising by 121pc from 155,445mt in January 2019.
Bulk and containerized
Container volumes nearly doubled for bulk ferrous scrap exports to Asia during the month, reversing the trend from January 2019.
Container shipments reached 437,835mt in January, declining by 226.2pc from 134,239mt during the prior year period. However, bulk shipments decreased by 12.2pc to 221,415mt from 252,201mt a year earlier.
Ferrous scrap exports to Malaysia surged 3,294pc to 243,607mt in January from 7,178mt during the prior year month. Taiwan also imported 102,562mt, increasing by 48.1pc from 69,267mt in January 2019. Bangladesh received 62,773mt in bulk shipments, followed by South Korea at 49,496mt, Vietnam at 34,096mt, and Thailand and Mexico at 32,000mt and 31,500mt, respectively.
East Coast
East Coast exports reached 65,862mt in January 2020, with Malaysia-bound ferrous scrap shipments hitting 141,398mt, rising 9.1pc from 15,610mt a year earlier. Exports to Turkey from the US East Coast totaled 343,184mt in January, rising 2.2pc from 155,445mt during the same month in 2019.
West Coast
There was 493,378mt of exports from the West Coast in January 2020. Malaysia received 223,966mt of ferrous scrap shipments in January, increasing by 3.7pc from 61,385mt in ferrous exports during the same month in 2019. West Coast ferrous exports to Taiwan reached 114,875mt in January, rising 1.4pc from 83,316mt during the prior year period.
North America
US ferrous scrap exports to North America reached 185,786mt during the first month of 2020, rising by 1.2pc from164,507mt shipped during January 2019. Shipments to Canada decreased by 1pc to 55,398mt January from 61,317mt a year earlier. However, that was offset by marginal increase in ferrous scrap shipments to Mexico, which rose by 1.3pc to 130,388mt from 103,190mt in January 2019.