The Eurasian Economic Commission is going to hold a hearing on June 15 regarding the initiative to implement a ban on ferrous scrap exports from its member countries, which are Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan.
The project aims to ensure that local steel producers are secured in terms of scrap supplies and suggests banning scrap exports from the mentioned countries until January 15, 2022. The initiative is the result of significantly increased global steel scrap prices and in Turkey specifically, making exporters more eager to sell abroad and get higher margins.
Clearly, the measure aims to limit scrap shipments from Russia as the key exporting countries of the member states. Interestingly, there was a recent announcement to increase the export scrap duty from €45/mt to €70/mt. Some sources believe that this discussion is another step to tighten the scrap export regulation system, while some players do not foresee it as being a viable idea. For one thing, such a measure may result in retaliatory measures from importing countries, which would damage other sectors. “Maybe they will come up with the quotas as in 2019. But first, the €70/mt tax needs to be imposed and to prove to be ineffective, which would take around two to three months. And only then it will be logical to decide what to do next,” a source told SteelOrbis.