Recently, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the General Administration of Customs jointly issued a notice on the adjustment of the Catalogue of Imported Waste Management, which will move 8 kinds of solid wastes such as steel scrap, copper scrap and aluminum scrap from ‘The Catalogue of Non-restricted Imported Solid Wastes Usable as Raw Materials to the Catalogue of Restricted Imported Solid Wastes usable as Raw Materials’, taking effect from July 1, 2019.
The adjustments on restricted import of solid waste include: cast iron waste and scrap, other alloy steel waste and scrap, tin-plated steel waste and scrap, steel scrap generated during machining (refers to lathing, planning, milling, grinding, sawing, filing, shearing, punching ), unlisted iron and steel scrap, iron and steel scrap ingots for remelting, other copper scrap and other aluminum scraps.
In July 2017, the State Council issued the “Implementation Plan for the Reform of the Import Management System for the Prohibition of Foreign Waste Imports of Solid Wastes”, clearly proposing “the Catalogue for the Management of Imported Solid Wastes by Adjusting in Batches and Categories” and “Stepwise and Orderly Reduction of the Type and Quantity of Solid Waste Imports”.
The Ministry of Ecology and Environment stated that the adjustment of the ‘Import Waste Management Catalogue’ is an established arrangement between the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the relevant departments in implementing the ‘Plan’ and promoting the reform of the solid waste import management system. It has been adjusted twice before already.
In 2017, based on the adjustment of 24 kinds of solid wastes of four categories , such as waste plastics, unsorted waste paper, waste textiles and vanadium slag, the second and third batches of catalogues were adjusted in April 2018 to the ban imports on 16 kinds of solid wastes such as scrap hardware, waste ship, compressed piece of scrap automobile, smelting slag and industrial waste plastic, which takes effect from December 31, 2018; 16 kinds of solid wastes, such as stainless steel waste and scrap, titanium waste and scrap, wood waste and scrap, were adjusted to be banned from import and will be implemented from December 31, 2019.
At the same time, relevant departments are studying and formulating quality standards for recycled copper and recycled aluminum raw materials, and those recycled copper and aluminum meeting relevant national product quality standards will be exempted from solid waste and can be managed as ordinary free import goods.
China’s crackdown on waste impacted Japanese exporters including its ripple effect on Vietnam, South Korea and Taiwan.
China’s ferrous scrap imports drop sharply in 2018 – Ferrous scrap imports are expected to be around 1.31 MnT ferrous scrap during CY18, down 44% as against 2.32 MnT the same period last year.
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