MOSCOW: The scrap imports by EU-28 countries during the initial three months of current year dropped sharply, as per the latest EU trade statistics released yesterday. According to trade data, the EU-28 nations’ scrap imports totaled 648,429 tons during the three-month period. The imports were down by 17.1% when compared with those during the corresponding three-month period last year.
The largest source of import of ferrous scrap by EU-28 region was Russia. The scrap imports from Russia totaled 233,744 tons, constituting nearly 36% of the total scrap imports by EU-28 nations during this period. The scrap imports from Russia dropped by 13.8% over the previous year.
In second place was Switzerland with 131,355 tons. The imports from Switzerland plunged by nearly 18% when compared with the imports during Jan-Mar ‘14. The third largest source for EU-28 countries’ scrap imports was Norway with 87,231 tons. The imports from Norway declined marginally by 3.6% during the three-month period. The top three destinations accounted for nearly 70% of the total EU-28 nations’ import. The other major import source of EU-28 nations were: Turkey (22,295 tons, down 35.8%), USA (21,800 tons, down 50.4%) and Canada (18,049 tons, up 224.6%).
The scrap imports by the region during the month of March 2015 alone totaled 259,255 tons. This is significantly higher when compared with the imports during the previous month. The EU-28 nations’ ferrous scrap imports had totaled 185,884 tons during February this year. Russia was the largest exporter during the month with 109,574 tons. In second place was Norway (48,868 tons), followed by Switzerland (46,716 tons). The other major importers during the month were Turkey (8,417 tons), Morocco (6,650 tons) and Bosnia & Herzegovina (5,636 tons).
