US ferrous scrap exports climbed by 12pc in January-May 2021 to 7.29mn mt from 6.5mn mt in the same timeframe last year, according to US Census Bureau data. The country’s exports also increased correspondingly by 42pc in May to 2mn mt from 1.33mn mt in the same month of 2020.
Turkey moved up a place to become the largest importer of US ferrous scrap despite a 4pc decline to 284,459mt in May from 297,816mt a year ago. Vietnam was the second-largest importer of the commodity, with seven times more cargo at 279,518mt compared with 34,200mt last May. Malaysia dropped three notches down from the top position but continued to increase its import volumes. The Asian country imported nearly thrice the ferrous scrap in May at 234,488mt against 49,034mt in the same month of 2020.
Coasts
East coast ferrous scrap exports amounted to 791,748mt up from 628,167mt, in May 2021. The West Coast shipped out 562,974mt an increase from 446,185mt in the prior month.
North America
Canada imported 34,177mt of US ferrous scrap in May, a 5pc decline from 36,066mt in the prior year. Meanwhile, Mexico’s imports soared by 126pc annually to 274,131mt from 121,202mt last year.
In the first five months of 2021, the US exported 268,735mt of ferrous scrap to Canada, a fall of 10pc from 297,136mt during the same prior-year period. Mexico imported 1.2mn mt in the year till May, up 58pc from 761,844mt during the same timeframe in 2020.