Malaysia’s imports of copper scrap dropped by 32pc in December from the prior year period.
Copper scrap imports in 2019 rose by 52.5pc, from the previous year, according to Davis Index analysis.
Malaysia imported 23,809mt of copper scrap in December, down by 11,294mt from a year ago.
The US was the top supplier of copper scrap to Malaysia in December, and exported 11,824mt, down by 43pc or 8,961mt from a year ago.
The second largest supplier was Japan, which exported 3,486mt of copper scrap to Malaysia, up by 101.3pc from a year ago.
In 2019, Malaysia imported 350,655mt of copper scrap, up by 120,755mt from the previous year.
The US was again the top supplier of copper scrap to Malaysia, and exported 166,918mt, up by 45pc or 52,413 mt from a year ago. Japan, the second largest supplier, exported 59,126mt in the period, up by 320pc or 45,067mt from a year ago.
Malaysia is the third largest importer of copper scrap in the world, after China and Germany.
Malaysia’s aluminium scrap imports also went up in 2019, by 38.9pc to 384,030mt from the prior year, while aluminium scrap imports in December 2019 rose by 100pc to 52,276mt from the prior year period. The US, Japan and Australia were the top suppliers of aluminium scrap to Malaysia during both time periods.