South Korea and Taiwan Increase Ferrous Scrap Import

South Korea and Taiwan increased the ferrous scrap import by 35.5% and 58% respectively in 2004 compared with that in 1998. Japan exported 3.58 million tonnes of scrap, which represents 52.5% of total scrap export, mainly for H2 grade with 3-6 millimeters thick while Japan export mainly H1 grade with more than 6 mm thick for China. Japanese scrap export price is moving closely with prices of USA and Russia. South Korea’s scrap export increased to 7.55 million tonnes in 2004 from 5.6 million tonnes in 1998. The import is expected to increase when the country has plans to build blast furnace and electric furnace. Japan and USA are the largest scrap sources. The import from Ukraine decreased due to the tariff in 2002 after the surge in 2000 and 2001. Taiwan’s scrap import increased to 3.79 million tonnes in 2004 from 2.4 million tonnes in 1998. The import kept increasing after it decreased to 1.8 million tonnes due to lower raw steel output in 1998. Japan is the largest scrap source and USA is the second. The import from Russia surged since 2002 and the import from Philippine increased since 2001.