The value of metal scrap imported into Mexico registered the worst setback in the last six months in March, decreasing 35.2 percent, year-over-year, to total $112 million. In the last 30 years, it is the third time that for a month of March imports exceeded $100 million, according to a SteelOrbis analysis of data from the national statistics agency Inegi.
From January to March, imported scrap totaled $308 million, 10.4 percent less than the same period in 2022.
In May of last year, the maximum import value of metal scrap in the Mexican steel market was registered with $189 million. It should be noted that in 2022, in the full year, the import of metal scrap registered a historical record with $1.39 billion.
Scrap exports from the Mexican market in March 2023 decreased for the sixth time in annual comparison. At $41 million, it was down 24.9 percent from the third month of last year.
The contraction in the export of metal scrap from Mexico began in October 2022, with the presidential order of Andrés Manuel Lopez 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 Sanchez has forgotten to respond to requests for information on the status of the ban or release of scrap exports.
In October 2022, with the ban, exports decreased in annual variation 23.4 percent, in November they plummeted 44.8 percent, in December they fell 31.4 percent, in January 2023 they decreased 29.7 percent, in February the drop was 19.5 percent and in March the drop was 24.9 percent.