A scrap industry association in China is lobbying their government to end a ban on ferrous scrap imports in order to help relieve a domestic shortage of scrap and reduce costs for steel mills.
China started halting imports of scrap metal in June 2017, with the intention of achieving a total ban on all scrap imports by 2020. China also imposed a 25pc import tariff on scrap metal from the USA, which has always been its top supplier of steel scrap.
Ferrous scrap however is not waste, but an important raw material which will help in the green development of China’s steel industry, said the deputy director of the China Association of Metalscrap utilisation at an industry event in Chengdu last week.