2016Yearbook_Flipbook

THE I SR I SCRAP YEARBOOK Chapter V: The Global Scrap Marketplace The Expanding Scrap Marketplace

The scrap market has become increasingly global in nature in recent decades. Figures from the United Nations Comtrade Database show that in 2015 alone, exports of all scrap commodities from reporting countries approached 190 million metric tons valued at more than $80 billion (See Appendix D). While the United States is the largest exporter of recycled commodities in the world and China is the world’s dominant consumer of commodities (including scrap), the scrap marketplace is far from bilateral, stretching to virtually every corner of the globe. The globalized scrap market is a function of enhanced transportation and technological systems, the rising world population and increased urbanization, as well as the heightened awareness of the benefits of using scrap commodities given the Earth’s limited natural resources. Those benefits include not only the relatively lower price of scrap as compared to most other raw material inputs, but also the resulting energy savings and environmental

benefits about which manufacturers and society at large are becoming increasingly mindful. As a result, global scrap usage is expected to register continued growth in the decades ahead as the confluence of demographic, climate, sustainable development, market, and technological changes provide even greater incentives to use recycled goods. As one example, figures from the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) show that between the years 2011-2015, steelmakers and other consumers the world over consumed more than 2.8 billion tons of ferrous scrap. Of the 555 million metric tons of ferrous scrap consumed last year, the BIR reports that European Union countries consumed just over 91 million metric tons (mt), followed by China (83.3 million mt), the U.S. (over 56 million mt) and Japan (33.6 million mt). But the growth in global scrap usage is not limited to any one commodity, industry, or region. BIR figures also show that more than 36 million tons of nonferrous scrap were

61

INSTITUTE OF SCRAP RECYCLING INDUSTRIES, INC.