China: Billet Imports Up On Scrap Import Restriction

China’s semi-finished steel surged in Sep’19 amid scrap ban. On 1st Jul'19, China's Ministry restricted imports of scrap with importers requiring proper permits.

This was done in order to further standardize the management of solid waste imports, and to prevent, control and reduce environmental pollution. According to data maintained with SteelMint, China's ferrous scrap imports fell sharply by 63% M-o-M to 4,466 MT in Aug'19. During Jan-Aug'19 China imported 172,235 MT ferrous scrap against 1,013, 939 MT in same time frame last year.

The Chinese buyers were looking for alternative forms of the metal from other countries at favorable prices. This has necessitated the country to buy process steel scrap into semi-finished products from South Asian, SE Asian and Gulf countries.

According to data released by the General Administration of Customs, the country has imported around 370,000 MT of billet & forgings from, up 418% against last year, custom data shows.

The county’s imports of billet & forgings during Jan-Sept’19 were recorded at 1.37 MnT,

China’s finished steel imports in Sep’19 were recorded at 1.1 MnT, up from 970,000 MT in August and 840,000 MT in July, the customs data shows.

Outlook: According to bookings reported by SteelMint China has booked around 399,000 MT billets in last two months from Iran, India and SE Asia Also China is actively booking pig iron from India, CIS and other countries. So it is expected that imports of metalliks and billets will remain strong in coming months. Sep’19.