Recyclingtoday.com
Obstacles persist in nonferrous markets
Edited by : AL CIRCLE
2 min read
Government “meddling” in the form of bans and other restrictions on nonferrous scrap exports reflected the influence of consumers “who falsely believe that scrap processed within their borders by us is inherently theirs to consume, regardless of its origin,” BIR Nonferrous Metals Division President Robert Stein of U.S.-based Alter Trading told the divisional meeting in Shanghai on May 27.
Stein’s comments came at the end of a month in which the Indian government had raised the basic customs duty on aluminum scrap imports to 2.5 percent and had re-imposed the 4 percent special additional duty of customs on brass scrap imports—moves he described as “yet another obstacle to the natural flow of metals around the world.”
“The markets are the best at determining where our scrap is shipped; the more barriers to free trade, the higher the costs to the processing community who will seek alternative markets,” Stein said.
In his summary of world markets based on reports submitted to the most recent BIR Nonferrous Metals World Mirror, Paul Coyte of Hayes Metals in New Zealand expressed his confusion as to why the Indian government had chosen to make such changes at a time of global uncertainty when, five years earlier, it had done “the polar opposite.”
Stein also cited a number of the other intractable problems currently confronting the nonferrous sector, including difficult margins, the high cost of scrap and thefts of metal from containers. He welcomed BIR’s decision to join forces with the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), a crime-fighting unit of the International Chamber of Commerce, in order to help it to build a more comprehensive database that could better apprise BIR members of theft and fraud risks around the world.
Stein’s comments came at the end of a month in which the Indian government had raised the basic customs duty on aluminum scrap imports to 2.5 percent and had re-imposed the 4 percent special additional duty of customs on brass scrap imports—moves he described as “yet another obstacle to the natural flow of metals around the world.”
“The markets are the best at determining where our scrap is shipped; the more barriers to free trade, the higher the costs to the processing community who will seek alternative markets,” Stein said.
In his summary of world markets based on reports submitted to the most recent BIR Nonferrous Metals World Mirror, Paul Coyte of Hayes Metals in New Zealand expressed his confusion as to why the Indian government had chosen to make such changes at a time of global uncertainty when, five years earlier, it had done “the polar opposite.”
Stein also cited a number of the other intractable problems currently confronting the nonferrous sector, including difficult margins, the high cost of scrap and thefts of metal from containers. He welcomed BIR’s decision to join forces with the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), a crime-fighting unit of the International Chamber of Commerce, in order to help it to build a more comprehensive database that could better apprise BIR members of theft and fraud risks around the world.
Previous article
Novelis celebrates roofing ceremony for its $250 million aluminum recycling plant in Germany
Next articleEuropean secondary aluminium prices go up despite LME fall
Grow with
AL Circle
