At the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) World Recycling Convention & Exhibition in Copenhagen, the bureau’s Ferrous Division focused on the latest recycled steel usage figures for 2023. According to the latest world figures, recycled steel usage across key countries and regions, with the exception of the US and India, dropped by 12 percent in 2023 to 411.28 million mt despite a 0.2 percent increase in their total crude steel production.
Looking at Turkey, guest speaker Atilla Widnell, managing director of Singapore-based Navigate Commodities, pointed to a sharp drop in Turkey’s electric arc furnace activity over recent months. According to the latest data, the share of recycled steel use in Turkey was as high as 86.3 percent last year, although a drop of 10.1 percent in the country’s import recycled steel purchases to 18.77 million mt was recorded in 2023. However, the country preserved its long-held position as the world’s foremost recycled steel importer.
In addition, China remained the world’s largest user of recycled steel with 1.02 billion mt of crude steel production and 213.6 million mt of recycled steel usage last year, while the EU-27 countries were the leading recycled steel exporter in 2023 with 19.22 million mt, with Turkey being the main buyer. Regarding China, Widnell recalled that China’s unfavorable steel market led to steel exports of almost 100 million mt in 2023.
