China slashes Cu, Al scrap import quotas

After being surprisingly generous with its first batch of import quotas for 2020 for copper and aluminum scrap, China has savagely pared back the tonnage allowable in its second round of quotas issued for this year, according to the latest bulletin released on January 8 by China Solid Waste and Chemicals Management, the state-backed conduit now responsible for managing the country’s metal waste materials imports.

Under the second quota, approved companies will be able to import just 26,566 tonnes of copper scrap, a far smaller quantity than the first batch of 270,885 tonnes awarded last December 24 for 2020, Mysteel Global notes. Similarly, domestic enterprises were awarded a combined aluminum scrap import quota of