Taiwanese steel mills sharply increased imports of ferrous scrap in February, taking into account the downtrend in the market and the flexible policy of Japanese suppliers. Total imports of scrap reached 369,679 mt in February, up by 45 percent compared to January and more than double year on year, according to customs department of the Ministry of Finance of Taiwan.
The US remained the largest scrap supplier to Taiwan, shipping 150,384 mt in February, two percent below the volume in January, but much higher compared to 72,880 mt in February 2019. Nevertheless, Japanese suppliers managed to increase sales at a much higher pace and the difference between the supply quantity from the US and Japan narrowed significantly. Japan shipped 144,876 mt of ferrous scrap to Taiwan last month, up 5.6 times compared to January and almost six times above the figure for the same period last year.
It is expected that shipments of scrap from Japan to Taiwan will be high in the March-April period, taking into account weak domestic demand and the reduction in purchases by some Asian countries. “Demand for scrap in such Asian countries like Vietnam is going down, so they [Japanese exporters] try to increase sales elsewhere,” a Taiwan-based customer said.