According to the statistics released by the US International Trade Commission (US ITC), in January this year US scrap exports amounted to 1.02 million metric tons, decreasing by 46.67 percent year on year and down 9.9 percent over the previous month.
In January US scrap exports to China amounted to 241,860 metric tons, decreasing by 10.99 percent year on year and down 35.8 percent month on month. Meanwhile, since the scrap export prices of the US remained at high levels, Turkey preferred Europe as its scrap import source and so US scrap exports to Turkey in the month in question declined by 61.91 percent year on year and were down 81.54 percent compared to December 2009, amounting to 80,638 metric tons.
Meanwhile, in the given month, US scrap exports to Taiwan and South Korea doubled as compared to the year-ago period, totaling 164,269 metric tons and 115,182 metric tons respectively, while respective month-on-month drops of 17.62 percent and 57.77 percent were recorded.
In January, the average export price of US scrap stood at $402/mt, increasing by 31 percent year on year and up 23.45 percent compared to December 2009.