Bangladesh, an emerging steel market and one of the growing importers of ferrous scrap in Asia, has witnessed a sharp increase in bulk ferrous scrap imports in 2019.
During the period of Jan-Oct’19, bulk scrap imports to Bangladesh have been recorded at 1.25 MnT, witnessing a significant increase by 39% Y-o-Y as compared to 0.90 MnT during the same period Jan-Oct’18.
Rising melting capacities and expansion plans of major steelmakers in the country has led to an increased ferrous scrap demand, while even more steelmakers are now turning active in booking scrap through bulk cargo vessels, as compared to only two major steelmakers booking bulk scrap till last year.
46 bulk scrap vessels arrived at berth – So far in 2019, a total of 46 bulk vessels of ferrous scrap arrived on berth in Bangladesh’s sea port, which is again a sharp increase against 31 bulk vessels last year (Jan-Oct’18).
USA remained the largest bulk scrap supplier – In terms of preferred origins for bulk scrap to Bangladesh, USA has remained the largest supplier in 2019 as well with 0.55 MnT as yet, however its share in total bulk scrap imported to Bangladesh has come down to 44% in 2019 (Jan-Oct) from 68% during Jan-Oct’18. However share of origins like UK, Japan and Australia considerably increasing their share this year.
Increased preference for UK & Japanese scrap cargoes – In particular, bulk scrap imports share from UK has increased from 13% in Jan-Oct’18 to 23% in Jan-Oct’19. Interestingly, out of the 47 bulk vessels with scrap that have come to berth at Chittagong port this year, Japan has a contribution of 13 bulk vessels with nearly 0.2 MnT, recording a two-fold jump against same time span last year.
In Oct 2019, bulk scrap imports to the country witnessed an increase by 19% M-o-M.
After govt imposed import duty made billet imports to Bangladesh non viable since 2015, scrap imports gradually went on to completely replace billet imports to Bangladesh by 2018. Further, the share of bulk vessels in the total scrap imports to the country has also been observing an increase since then.
To know more on Bangladesh scrap imports, book your seat at SteelMint’s 3rd Steel and Raw Material Conference, Bangladesh and get a chance to hear views of renowned industry participants from across the globe. The conference is being organized on 23rd-24th March 2019 in Chittagong, Bangladesh.
