The South African government and the South African metals sector have agreed in principle on the necessity to introduce export duties on both ferrous and non-ferrous scrap to boost the local supplies of these raw materials, as part of a bid to reduce manufacturing costs.
According to local reports, Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa President Johan Fourie has stated that detailed work is being carried out by the Department of Trade, Industry and National Treasury aimed at the finalization of the export tariff.
As a new instrument, this move will be of great significance since there is currently no export tariff on scrap in place in South Africa; therefore, the issue is still under discussion for the purpose of imposing the most suitable measure.
The government is not aiming to entirely halt exports of scrap metal, but is rather trying to create a balance that will only allow surplus scrap to be exported.
According to the statistics, apart from the estimated 2 million mt of ferrous scrap sourced by South Africa from the market in 2007 (of which 0.080 million mt were imported), a volume of 0.850 million mt of ferrous scrap was exported during the same year by metal recyclers in the country.
In light of these data, apparent scrap consumption in South Africa stood at around 1.15 million mt in 2007.