"The prospects for the global steel market are unexciting. China keeps on growing but at a slower rate, the euro zone is suffering, while the US shows some minimal signs of recovery," Ruggero Alocci, vice president of the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) Ferrous Board, told SteelOrbis when summing up the latest meeting of the association held in Shanghai.
Mr. Alocci stated that during the day focused on ferrous scrap the participants pointed out two major concerns: first of all, the Action Plan for the European Steel Industry that Antonio Tajani, European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship and Vice-President of the European Commission, will present in the coming days. Due to environmental reasons, duties could be applied to European scrap exports to countries that pay less attention to environmental protection. The aim of the plan would be to discourage exports and to protect European production. However, those active in scrap collection and processing are afraid that such measures could negatively affect their business. Furthermore, participants at the BIR meeting discussed the ‘green fence' regulation introduced by Chinese authorities which allows the implementation of strict customs controls and the return of scrap liable to cause environmental problems - a situation which is obviously negative for all exporters of scrap to China.
Alocci stated that China has reduced its scrap purchases from Europe and United States, and the import volume will drop further against the slowdown of local steel output and the improvement of internal scrap collection. This situation, which has caused negative sentiment to prevail in the market, has already affected quotations of iron ore, the BIR official said.