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scrap exports between 2000 and 2005, the
quantity had declined again by 2011; thus
there was a decline in exports from Latin
America while scrap availability actually increased.
In other words: Latin America has
been changing from an export-orientated to a
scrap-importing region thanks to considerable
economic growth in various Latin American
countries.
In 2011, most scrap exports from Europe
were to China and other Asian countries, with
some minor exports to North and Latin America.
Exports from Europe to North America
and Brazil were presumably mostly used beverage
cans (UBCs). Imports to Europe came
from North America, the Middle East and
Africa.
Fig. 5 gives a more detailed picture of the
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
development of scrap exports in the last decade:
it compares Europe and North America
as the two most important export regions. It
shows there is a huge increase in the quantities
exported from North America. In 2000,
North America exported less tonnage than
Europe and most scrap was consumed within
the region, but from then on exports increased
tremendously: they tripled between 2000 and
2005 and more than doubled between 2005
and 2011.
In Europe the increase in scrap exports is
less apparent. There was a considerable rise
of around 88% between 2000 and 2005‚ but
after that the growth rate slowed to around
30%, or a total of 936,000 tonnes. This is
nevertheless still a lot of material.
Concerning export destinations, as can be
seen from Fig. 5 North America preferred to
sell to China, while exports to India were surprisingly
low. Export quantities to the other
Asian countries rose steadily.
Exports from Europe to China increased
considerably between 2000 and 2005, with the
volume tripling, but the growth rate then decelerated.
Exports from Europe to India were
much higher than those from North America,
and were more or less at the same level as to
other Asian countries.
Fig. 1 shows that domestic scrap consumption
in North America went down between
2000 and 2011 while there was an increase
in Europe. One can deduct from those figures
that Europe was still consuming much more
of its own scrap whereas North America was
mainly exporting its scrap. One of the main
differences between North America and Europe
is that the focus on industry is less strong
in the former. This can be illustrated by taking
a look at exports within the region, so called
intraregional exports, e.g. between different
European countries or between the USA
and Canada, and comparing them with interregional
exports, e.g. exports from Europe to
China. While 2.87m tonnes or 75% of the
total export volume was traded within Europe
(Fig. 6), the quantity traded between the
USA, Canada and Mexico was only 586,000
tonnes, or 22% of the total export volume.
This shows that the North American scrap
industry is predominantly export-orientated
whereas in Europe most scrap is traded and
remelted within the region.
Fig. 7 shows the main export destinations
for European scrap in 2000, 2005 and 2011.
As mentioned earlier, there was a particularly
marked increase in the volume of exports to
China up until 2005, but by 2011 the importance
of China as an export region compared
to total European exports had declined. India
and other Asian countries were the other main
export regions.
Compared with the total scrap available in
Europe, these figures mean there was still an
increase in exports. Scrap consumption in Europe
increased from 3.5m tonnes in 2000 to
4.2m tonnes in 2005 and then to 4.5m tonnes
in 2011; exports increased from around 10%
of total scrap available in 2000 to 15% in 2005
and 17% in 2011. Although considerable
quantities of scrap were still exported in recent
years, there has nevertheless been a detectable
deceleration in the rate of growth.
scrap importing countries
China’s main supplier (Fig. 8) is North America,
whose importance has grown steadily in
22 ALUMINIUM · 5/2013