Asia has 70% of Stainless Steel Recycling Market - China Dominates, India Has Huge Potential

Asia’s influence on the global stainless steel recycling market is huge, the recent Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) Stainless Steel & Special Alloys Committee’s plenary session in Paris was told. The session, which saw Joost van Kleef - commercial manager of Dutch firm, KMR Stainless, officially take over from interim chairman, OneSteel Recycling’s Mark Sellier, heard that Asia now produces more than 70% of the world’s stainless steel. Bharat Mandloi of Singapore’s Cronimet ABCOM said that Asia’s influence could be summarised in a single, short word - “Big” - and that it “definitely drives the market”. Delegates heard that China was responsible for a substantial share of this Asian production but had a stainless steel scrap ratio of around 30% (compared to a world average of more than 50%) as a result of its focus on nickel pig iron. India meanwhile was said by Mandloi to have become the largest stainless steel scrap buyer in Asia over the last two years, although most of its mills tended to operate on a hand-to-mouth basis and did not build large inventories. André Reinders of Nicrinox argued that stainless steel scrap values in India were driven by supply and demand. At present, Indian buyers were paying prices up to $100 per tonne higher than those prevailing in Europe “because they have to convince the sellers to sell” in what was described as a largely spot-driven market. Reinders described China’s emergence as a stainless steel powerhouse as “phenomenal and rapid”. “If it wasn’t for the 40% export tax, we believe China would be a net exporter of stainless steel scrap,” he added. The same speaker contended that India “has the greatest potential for stainless steel growth” because its per-capita consumption currently stands at 1.2kg per annum versus 10kg for China. But he also insisted that control of the stainless steel markets “will be in the hands of China”. Tobias Kämmer of Dutch company, KMR Stainless, confirmed that China was set to produce 22.5 million tonnes of crude stainless steel in 2014, or slightly more than half the projected global total of 43.6 million tonnes. Indonesia’s ore export ban was said to have triggered a spike in the nickel price followed by a retreat towards its 2014 lows - partly because Chinese stocks were lasting significantly longer than originally anticipated. According to Kämmer, if the ban continued and the nickel market moved into undersupply over the coming years, China “will lose the era of cheap nickel” and its mills’ competitiveness would come under threat. “The importance of stainless scrap will definitely increase, also in China,” he concluded. Meanwhile, the U.S. was said to be continuing to emerge as a leading importer of stainless steel scrap owing to demand growth related in part to additional capacity coming on stream. Kämmer noted that scrap volumes entering the U.S. in the early months of 2014 had been more than 200% higher than in the same period of 2013. Read More All Change in the Stainless Steel Recycling Market BIR Convention Told In a dramatic turnaround Europe will have a surplus of scrap stainless steel this year and will need to export, while the U.S. market has moved in the opposite direction from surplus to shortage, heard delegates at this year’s Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) Stainless Steel & Special Alloys Committee meeting, held in Miami. High Prices Cut Chinese Imports of Stainless Steel The high price of Nickel on the London Metal Exchange (LME) has led to decline in Chinese stainless steel scrap imports, and the exponential growth of its own nickel pig iron production, according to Sven Tollin, Chief Statistician at the Portugal-based International Nickel Study Group (INSG). Just 12% of Plastic Waste Recycled Within EU – But is China’s Green Fence Coming Down? Only around 12% of the total plastics waste generated within the EU is actually recycled inside its borders while some 38% is still going to landfill, attendees of the recent Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) World Recycling Convention & Exhibition in Miami.