GACC: China's July ferrous scrap imports jump 20% YoY

The robust production among Chinese steelmakers, including both blast furnace (BF) and electric-arc-furnace (EAF) mills, drove up their consumption of steel scrap last month, Mysteel's survey showed. Rising scrap demand plus persistently tight supply of the feedstock in China encouraged steel mills to source more materials from overseas markets, Mysteel Global noted.

By origin, imports from Japan, the top ferrous scrap supplier to China, grew 13.6% from June and surged 44.5% from July 2024 to hit 13,476 tonnes, accounting for 62.1% of China's total scrap imports last month, GACC data showed.

Meanwhile, Chinese mainland's scrap imports from Taiwan also increased significantly in July, with the quantity exploding by 148% on month to reach 893 tonnes, touching the highest level since March last year, the data showed.

The rise in China's scrap imports in July was mainly driven by steelmakers' increased purchases of alloy steel scrap such as nickel-moly and high chrome scrap, with their combined volumes reaching 11,455 tonnes last month, up by 19.9% on month and 0.5% on year, according to GACC.

However, China's import volume of common carbon steel scrap showed little increase as the overseas materials remained more expensive than those at home, Mysteel's other survey showed.

For example, the average price of HS scrap imported from Japan in July was assessed by Mysteel at $342/tonne excluding the 13% VAT, about $50/t higher than the average price of 6-8mm common carbon steel scrap in Zhangjiagang in East China's Jiangsu province.

During January-July this year, China's ferrous scrap imports totalled 155,517 tonnes, slightly lower by 2.4% compared with the same period last year, GACC data showed.

Written by Anthea Shi, shihui@mysteel.com

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com