According to Taiwan’s finance ministry, Taiwan imported 237,206 mt of ferrous scrap in January 2018. The sources for the scrap imports were the US (120,018 mt, 51 percent), Hong Kong (13,205 mt, 6 percent), Japan (12,099 mt, 5 percent), Australia (11,571 mt, 5 percent), and Canada (10,572 mt, 4 percent), and other countries (69,741 mt, 29 percent).
Compared to December imports of approximately 236,025 mt, January scrap imports were 0.5 percent higher. Compared to the previous month, imports from the US increased 10 percent while imports from Japan declined 51 percent. The decline in imports from Japan is attributed to higher export prices due to high domestic demand and strong export demand from South Korean mills. The increase of 9 percent from Australia and 12 percent from Canada compared to December, along with the increase from other countries, is attributed to efforts to diversify scrap sourcing due to high scrap prices from the US.