Brazil’s ferrous scrap exports reach in July lowest point since 2007

Exports of ferrous scrap, an input widely used by steel mills, saw the lowest export levels since 2007. According to figures supplied by the Secretariat of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economy, Secex, overseas sales totaled 5,614 tonnes in July, a drop of 87.5% from the same month in 2021, when they reached 45,081 tonnes.

With the drop in exports in the previous two months (export figures totaled 12,830 tonnes in June), the statistics from January to July recorded in 2022 and 2021 are pretty close. There were 237,113 tonnes in the first seven months of this year, 5% more than the 225,776 tonnes in the same time in 2021.

July ferrous scrap exports reverted to 2007 levels when the worldwide market began to open up significantly to the sector. The total in 2007 was 85 thousand tonnes, increasing to 119 thousand in 2008 and 115 thousand in 2009. However, there was a significant shift after that: slightly more than 731 thousand tonnes in 2020, compared to 509 thousand last year.

See below the track record of the exports of ferrous scrap from Brazil between January 2019 and June 2022. The chart below was designed with data collected by Datamar’s business intelligence team on the DataLiner platform.

Exports of Ferrous scrap from Brazil | Jan 2021 – Jun 2022 | WTMT

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

According to Clineu Alvarenga, president of the National Institute of Recycling (Inesfa), the war in Ukraine caused a sharp retraction in business abroad due to the stoppage of ports and freight increases. In Brazil, he says, steel mills have also reduced purchases and have been forcing prices down. The entity represents more than 5,600 recyclable iron and steel processors, among other sectors that reinsert inputs into the production chain.

According to S&P Global Platts, an American agency specializing in providing reference prices and benchmarks for commodity markets, “after the successive price decreases announced by steelmakers in June, the strategy of scrap suppliers now seems to be to increase business with foundries, which tend to pay more for products with greater quality than those consumed by mills.”

Source: UOL

To read the full original article, please go to: https://economia.uol.com.br/noticias/estadao-conteudo/2022/08/08/exportacoes-de-sucata-ferrosa-caem-e-atingem-menor-volume-para-julho-desde-2007.htm

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