The value of steel scrap exports from Mexico fell 23.4 percent, year-over-year, in October to $29.4 million. According to media, the decline could be attributed to the Mexican government's ban on exporting steel and aluminum scrap announced in early October, as one of the measures of President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador’s anti-inflation plan.
The export ban was specified for steel and aluminum used in food packaging, but Mexican trade data, reviewed by SteelOrbis, show that the value of overall steel scrap exports in October is the lowest in the last 20 months.
Earlier this month, SteelOrbis asked the Mexican foreign trade regulatory body about how the anti-inflation plan (Opening Agreement Against Inflation and Famine, APECIC) would be applied. Despite the request for information, the Ministry of Economy, headed by Raquel Buenrostro, did not respond to the request.
The information is necessary because some scrap dealers are unaware of the federal government's measures, according to sources.
Although the export of scrap from Mexico is limited, in the first months of the year, it resumed its boom and in the period January-October it totaled $433 million, a figure that ranks as the highest in the last 14 years.