On 4th May 2021, the officials of the Industry Association stated Malaysia’s proposal for restrictions on imports of scrap metal like aluminium among others might lose out to its neighbouring nations on the highly desired investment in the recycling sector.
Lately, Malaysia has cropped up as a scrap metal centre, importing aluminium and copper waste from countries like the United States and European region for processing into a form and will be absorbed by China, the global highest metal consumer.
Presently, China permits only very high-grade scrap to enter, due to environmental reasons. Malaysia being cautious of becoming the waste dumping yard of Asia has taken the same path and this year proposing further stricter guidelines on imports.
Eric Tan, President of the Malaysia Non-ferrous Metals Association (MNMA), said: "Malaysia is one of the important countries to process scraps such as insulated copper wire (ICW) and Zorba. Zorba is shredded nonferrous scrap that is mostly aluminium.”
"If the guideline comes into force, investment in ICW and Zorba may be affected," Tan said, emphasizing it was only at the draft stage and might still be revised, as the MNMA pursues to deliver the assessment.
“The proposed guidelines, issued by state standards agency SIRIM, require metal content of at least 94.75% in ferrous and non-ferrous scrap, which would mean high-value ICW could not enter Malaysia”, Tan explained.
“Furthermore, zero tolerance of nonferrous dust under the guidelines would also jeopardise shipments of Zorba - as the second-biggest export from the United States to Malaysia - while a requirement for both pre-and post-shipment inspections of cargoes would needlessly inflate costs, he added.
Alfred Tan, MNMA's Secretary-General, said: “As many countries transition to a low-carbon future, 50% of non-ferrous metal globally will have to come from scrap, up from 30-35% now.”
"The non-ferrous metal industry in the future is very much resource-based competition. We just don't have much time to establish a mature supply chain and ecosystem. We've got to do this within 2-3 years from now."
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