China’s steel scrap consumption has been on an uptrend since the past couple of years, in line with the government’s proposal for more scrap consumption in steelmaking in its last 5-year plan. According to China Association of Metal Scrap Utilization (CAMU) reports, China’s ferrous scrap consumption has increased by 15% Y-o-Y during H1 2019 (Jan-Jun’19). The scrap consumption during this period stood at 101.13 MnT, as against 87.9 MnT observed in H1 2018.
In Q3 CY’18, the scrap consumption by the country was recorded at 51.3 MnT, while it is expected that the figure will be surpassed by a considerable margin in Q3 CY’19.
With strict restrictions on import of scrap to China, the consumption of ferrous scrap is now almost totally dependent on domestic procurement. As per the new policies introduced in Jan‘19, the govt is aiming to completely restrict imports of ferrous scrap (along with other solid wastes) from Jan’2020, while it had made mandatory for scrap importers in China get import licenses in order to procure scrap till Dec’19.
In H1 2019, scrap imports to China were registered at 155,685 MT, down 81% Y-o-Y against 856,422 MT in H1 2018.
Ferrous scrap exports from China down to almost minor volumes – China’s volume for scrap exports in H1 2019 were down to just 2202 MT, down 99.4% from around 340,000 MT of exports in H1 2018, with almost eternity of the scrap generation in the country utilized domestically.
China’s crude steel production observed a rise of 9% Y-o-Y with 488 MnT of production recorded in H1 2019 as against 449 MnT of production in H1 2018.
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