Ferrous scrap from Northern Europe has flowed to the US at near-record levels through the first eight months of the year, driven by a strong US dollar, US mill demand for prime scrap grades and weak scrap demand around Europe, data showed this week.
US ferrous scrap imports topped 400,000 mt in August, and at the current monthly rate, annual US imports are on pace to top 4 million mt this year, according to data from the US Department of Commerce and US International Trade Commission.
Through the first eight months of 2016, US scrap imports are up 89.8% from Sweden, 105% from the UK and 119.3% from the Netherlands on a year-on-year basis. Sweden and the Netherlands are on pace to reach all-time record volumes of scrap shipments to the US this year, and the UK is on pace for its highest levels in 10 years.
The US remains the world's largest exporter of scrap, but last year it was also the fourth largest importer of scrap, a position it is likely to maintain this year. Through August, the US has exported 7.98 million mt and imported 2.80 million mt of ferrous scrap. A majority of the scrap exported from the US is HMS I, HMS II, plate & structural scrap and shredded scrap, while the US mostly imports No. 1 busheling and No. 1 bundles as well as shredded scrap.
August scrap import totals were 419,264 mt, a three-month high. The imports came mostly from Canada (234,802 mt), Sweden (61,576 mt), the UK (60,765 mt), the Netherlands (34,003 mt) and Mexico (26,022 mt). The totals from Sweden were the most since November 2014 and August marked the sixth consecutive month that the Netherlands has shipped bulk quantities of scrap to the US.
At the current monthly rate, US scrap imports are on pace to be 4.20 million mt over 2016, 9.3% ahead of the pace through the first eight months of 2015. On an annualized rate through the first eight months, scrap imports are on pace to be 460,022 mt from the UK, 344,334 mt from Sweden and 270,027 mt from the Netherlands.
