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E conoM ics
the past decade or so: in 2000 imports from
North America accounted for just 27% of
China’s total import volume. This figure rose
to 48% in 2005 and 68% in 2011. In contrast,
China’s total imports from Europe rose from
23% to 28% between 2000 and 2005, but
then fell back to only 18% in 2011.
Excluding China, the main importers and
consumers of aluminium scrap in Asia between
2000 and 2011 were India and especially
South Korea (Fig. 9). Scrap imports of
other Asian countries did not increase considerably
over the last decade.
In Latin America, Brazil was the main importer
of scrap. Imports peaked at 103,487
tonnes in 2007 and did not change considerably
after that. In 2008, Saudi Arabia was the
main supplier accounting for nearly 16,000
tonnes of scrap, mostly UBCs.
Imports of scrap into Europe are minor
(Fig. 10). They fell from 125,166 tonnes in
2000 to 102,361 tonnes in 2005 and then
to 78,978 tonnes in 2011. This decrease was
mainly due to the lack of CIS exports to Europe
as a result of export restrictions. In 2011,
most imported scrap came from the Middle
East, North America and Africa.
is convinced that scrap consumers will have
noted an improvement in the quality of the
scrap supplied in recent years, and this trend
will certainly continue in future.
3. Innovation: the recycling industry is
continually developing recycling techniques
and processes to be more competitive. In addition,
a growing number of engineering companies
are now concentrating more and more
on the recycling industry. By developing new
and specific separation and preparation techniques,
the quality of many products that previously
had to undergo refining are now good
enough to be used by remelters. This approach
Fig. 5
should be intensified via further cooperation.
4. Consignment stocks: trading companies
could get more and more involved in stockholding
and thus, to a certain extent, in financing
scrap consumers. Many clients are already
demanding just-in-time delivery as a service
and many scrap companies are already cooperating
with their clients in this respect.
5. The advantages of keeping the scrap in
Europe: here one can cite aspects such as enhanced
environmental protection in Europe;
contract reliability; the ability to carry out
quality control at short notice and not weeks
later (the author has been involved in arbitra-
the role of metal trade
Given the huge amounts of scrap exported
from North America, Europe and other regions,
and the growth of imports into China,
India, South Korea and other far eastern countries,
one could be excused for believing that
metal traders are only interested in exporting
scrap.
However, a look at the figures for trade
within Europe shows that it is not only exports
that matter. Although a tremendous quantity
of scrap is exported, there has not been extraordinary
growth in exports either in absolute
terms or percentagewise during the last
decade.
This begs the question of the role the metal
trade can play in future in securing the supply
of scrap for European remelters and refiners.
In addition to simply buying and selling, there
are a number of ways in which scrap traders
and scrap consumers might strengthen their
co-operation.
1. Risk management: traders could take
hedge positions via the LME or some other
means to secure a fixed price basis for scrap
consumers; this would be in addition to what
many works are doing themselves.
2. Quality: the scrap industry is in the process
of steadily improving the quality of its
service by ISO certification, training of employees,
suppliers, hauliers, etc. The author
Fig. 6
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