South Korea’s stainless steel scrap and aluminium scrap imports rose by 56.5pc and 14pc, respectively, in January from a year ago, but copper scrap imports declined by 6.9pc, according to Davis Index analysis.
The country’s stainless steel imports last month were 8,660mt higher than they were in January 2019, reaching 23,995mt, with Japan supplying the most —10,786mt, 35.6pc more than a year ago.
Aluminium imports to South Korean totalled 78,474mt in January, up by 9,742 over the same month last year. The US, from which South Korea imported 29,529mt—4pc more than January 2019—remained the country’s top supplier. Japan supplied the second-largest amount of aluminium scrap in January with 8,990mt, up from 7,917 one year ago.
South Korea imported 33,095mt of copper scrap in January, down by 2,449mt on an annual basis. The US remained South Korea’s top copper scrap supplier, with the latter importing 9,481mt, up by 2.2pc over the prior year period. South Korea imported 2,175mt of copper scrap from Saudi Arabia—South Korea’s second-largest supplier—however, imports declined by 30.5pc from a year ago.
South Korea is the world’s fourth-largest aluminium and copper importer, including the third-largest in Asia following China and India in aluminium scrap, and China and Malaysia in copper scrap.