SteelMint Scrap Conference: Ebbs and flows
SteelMint Scrap Conference: Ebbs and flows
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As in previous years, 2017 will yield changes in which nations are buying or selling the most ferrous scrap. According to speakers at SteelMint’s 2017 Steel Scrap & Raw Materials Conference Asia, held in September in Bangkok, eager buyers in several nations are ready to absorb the excess scrap of other nations.
Zain Nathani of the Mumbai-based Nathani Group of Companies commented that the European Union exported the most ferrous scrap in 2016, with some 17.8 million metric tons, followed by the United States, which shipped 13 million metric tons. Japan, said Nathani, was the third-largest exporter. Although China was a net importer in 2016, said Nathani, it’s possible it could join the list of 10 largest exporters in 2017, based on its recent trading activities with nations such as South Korea and Vietnam.
The largest importers of ferrous scrap in 2016, Nathani noted, were led by Turkey followed by Mexico, Taiwan and India. The global demand for ferrous scrap “is expected to be quite strong going forward,” he commented. Nathani said Pakistan and Bangladesh “will surpass India [in import volumes]—they’ll really be driving the South Asia market going forward.”
Nathani said Turkey will continue to be the world’s largest importer and, on the pricing front, “will be the price setter.” Buyers in India, he said, are at risk “of being completely priced out.”
Jayesh Jain of India’s MTC Group said that company is making investments, including the installation of an auto shredder, to increase India’s domestic collection of ferrous scrap. He said more than half of India’s growing steelmaking production is scrap-based, split between electric arc furnaces (EAFs) and induction furnaces.
With a national recycling policy being formulated that should encourage investment, Jain said MTC has plans “for at least 10” auto shredding plants. India also is producing a rapidly increasing number of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs), Jain remarked.
Yogesh Bedi of India’s Tata Steel said that company is launching a recycling division—Tata Recycling—based in part to help execute the national recycling policy being formulated by India’s Ministry of Steel.
Bedi said India’s scrap industry currently is “very fragmented.” ELVs, said Bedi, are most often handled by an informal sector that uses environmentally unsound methods that also create health risks for workers and nearby residents.
Bedi said the anticipated new policy should include “norms” that must be followed by dismantlers and incentives for ELV owners to take vehicles to recyclers who follow these norms, rather than to the informal sector.
Market dynamics are different in Japan, according to Gaku Ito of Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co. Ltd., which Ito described as Japan’s largest EAF steelmaker. Ito said from 1964 to the present, Japan has accumulated a sizable reservoir of ferrous scrap, and the nation has been a net exporter since 1991. “We now export 8 million metric tons per year,” he commented.
Thus, said Gaku, Tokyo Steel is investing to grow the market share for EAF production in Japan, which currently stands at 22 percent. Among the drivers for those investments is Japan’s commitment to the Paris climate change accord to limit carbon emissions. “Japan has to raise its [EAF] ratio to 80 percent by 2050” as part of that commitment, he said.
Tokyo Steel is developing and deploying technology to use lower grades of ferrous scrap, said Ito, and is planning to raise its EAF output from about 2 million metric tons in 2016 to 6 million by 2030 and 10 million by 2050.
SteelMint’s 2017 Steel Scrap & Raw Materials Conference Asia was Sept. 11-12 at the Avani Riverside Hotel in Bangkok.
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Source: Recycling Today
SteelMint Scrap Conference: Ebbs and flows
<![CDATA[As in previous years, 2017 will yield changes in which nations are buying or selling the most ferrous scrap. According to speakers at SteelMint’s 2017 Steel Scrap & Raw Materials Conference Asia, held in September in Bangkok, eager buyers in several nations are ready to absorb the excess scrap of other nations. Zain Nathani of the Mumbai-based Nathani Group of Companies commented that the European Union exported the most ferrous scrap in 2016, with some 17.8 million metric tons, followed by the United States, which shipped 13 million metric tons. Japan, said Nathani, was the third-largest exporter. Although China was a net importer in 2016, said Nathani, it’s possible it could join the list of 10 largest exporters in 2017, based on its recent trading activities with nations such as South Korea and Vietnam. The largest importers of ferrous scrap in 2016, Nathani noted, were led by Turkey followed by Mexico, Taiwan and India. The global demand for ferrous scrap “is expected to be quite strong going forward,” he commented. Nathani said Pakistan and Bangladesh “will surpass India [in import volumes]—they’ll really be driving the South Asia market going forward.” Nathani said Turkey will continue to be the world’s largest importer and,…