China’s sold waste imports, including metal scrap declined by 37.5pc to 13.1mn mt during Jan- mid Dec 2019, as per the country’s customs data.
In 2018, the country imposed its first ban on imports of 16 types of waste materials which included, scraps of cast iron and tin steel, waste from machining & remelting processes, other iron and steel waste materials. The government added 16 more types of materials which included scrap metals like stainless steel, tungsten, magnesium and titanium to the list of banned imports on Dec 31, 2019. The decision is likely to affect import volume further in 2020.
Chinese customs department intensified crackdown on solid waste smuggling from early 2019. The department issued penalties in 354 smuggling cases during Jan-mid December 2019. The penalties levied by the government lowered smuggling cases by 21pc, according to the Chinese customs department. The illegal imports too declined by 48.6pc to 763,000mt from the prior year.
In Jan-Nov 2019 period, Chinese ferrous scrap imports fell by 85pc to 180,263mt from 1,227,072mt in the prior year. The country imported 2mn mt ferrous scrap in 2017.