For the second consecutive month, the value of scrap metal imported into Mexico decreased, by 20.1 percent in April, year-over-year, totaling $121 million, according to a SteelOrbis analysis of data from national statistics agency Inegi.
In March the value decreased 35.2 percent, while the historical record import was in May of last year with $189 million.
In the accumulated four months of 2023 to April, imported scrap totaled $429 million, 13.4 percent or $66 million less compared to the same period in 2022.
Scrap exports from the Mexican market in April decreased for the seventh time year-on-year, down 28.1 percent from April 2022 to $40 million.
The contraction in the export of metal scrap from Mexico began in October 2022, with the presidential order of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to prohibit the export of metal and aluminum scrap, as a measure of his anti-inflationary plan.
Although the federal government modified its anti-inflation plan, the Mexican foreign trade regulator, the Ministry of Economy headed by Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez has forgotten to respond to SteelOrbis' requests for information on the status of the ban or release of scrap exports.