The BIR World Recycling Convention in Bangkok hosted a spirited discussion on 28 October, with industry leaders navigating the trade barriers in a fragmented global market and emphasising the critical importance of free trade.
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The session of the International Trade Council highlighted the complexities of protecting domestic markets versus maintaining the global flow of essential resources.
Murat Bayram, Managing Director, European Metals Recycling (GBR/DEU), agreed that the steel industry in Europe needed support but not with tariffs. “We are on the same page at the end of the day because we also want European steel mills to come out stronger,” Mr Bayram said in response to US supporters of tariffs. He stressed that the solution lies in cooperation and supporting the economy, not in protectionism.
“Another tariff on our area would bring more bureaucracy, more barriers and more complexity. But what do we want? We want more recycling. We need to support the industry - but you can do it in a positive way.”
Mr Bayram was clear that the core issue in Europe is not the availability of recycled steel, but structural economics: “The problem is not the recycling industry, the problem is the economy. If you go to our valued customers, you see their order books are weak.”
As an alternative to attacking each other with tariffs, he suggested support mechanisms. “There could be incentives if something is processed in Europe and smelted in Europe, something like a CO2 certificate benefit we can share with the smelter. Then you will definitely try to sell to the smelter in Europe.” He underlined that high energy prices remain a much bigger problem for European mills than recycled metals availability.
International Trade Council Chairman Emmanuel Katrakis, Director of Public and Regulatory Affairs, Galloo (FRA/BEL), rebutted calls within Europe for taxes on the export of recycled steel, copper and aluminium. He showed a graph of the consumption and export of European recycled steel, indicating consumption had decreased by around 10 million tonnes in the past 10 years.
“The more [Europe] consumes, the more recycled steel is arising locally. Yet, with less steel production and thus less use of recycled steel, which is the case in the EU, higher exports compensate for that drop in consumption. The EU is one of the world's most important recycled metals exporters, backed by an always-increasing recycling production, following the GDP growth, and an unfortunate local industry demand decline.”
Mr Katrakis asserted: “What is equally very striking is that whenever there is a very small increase in consumption of recycled steel in Europe, there is a decrease in exports. There is no need for any restriction - the market sorts itself automatically.” He also reiterated that a much bigger problem in Europe was higher energy prices which was not an issue for mills in the US or Asia.
A robust defence of US tariffs on steel imports was delivered by George Adams, CEO SA Recycling (USA), stating: “I love tariffs.”
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He told attendees: “Tariffs are single-handedly saving our steel industry in the US. If you can take our scrap and ship it all the way to China or to India and they make steel and bring it all the way back for cheaper than we can make it here - something's wrong.”
Whether foreign steel makers were being subsidised or not, Mr Adams was adamant his country had to have a vibrant, strong industry to make its own steel. If steel was largely manufactured overseas, Mr Adams argued, the domestic industry would be hollowed out and that was “a tremendous risk”.
“From a very selfish point of view, being a recycler in the US, I want steel mills. I want a lot of steel mills. So that they want to pay me more money for my scrap.”
Mr Katrakis noted that the US has imposed tariffs to protect steelmakers from international competition, in particular from China, but not on exports of recycled steel. He asked Mr Adams how US automobile companies were coping with costly import tariffs on the steel they were buying in for their cars. “If you now have to buy more expensive steel, the price of your product goes up,” Mr Adams acknowledged. “But at the end of the day, we need that industry. The steel mills I've visited have had tremendous investment. They’re state-of-the-art, and they're running the way they're supposed to run. They can be competitive against anybody in the world as long as it's fair.”
“Yes, our steel is going to be more expensive and ultimately we'll probably have to protect our car industry too. As long as things are being run efficiently and properly, then we need to make them in our country.”
Adam Shaffer, VP, International Trade and Global Affairs, ReMA (USA), set out how the US recycling organisation used data to challenge manufacturers’ calls for export restrictions on end-of-life aluminium and copper, as well as providing insight into the dynamics of the metals’ domestic markets.
ReMA commissioned a study into the availability of recycled aluminium and copper in the US markets in October 2024 and the findings were released in October 2025. Mr Shaffer said initial analysis from the data was used in the summer to show the Government there was no evidence to support claims that export restrictions on recycled copper were a remedy. Later, the data was used to rebut similar assertions from the US Aluminum Association.
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“The data backed up exactly what we had been telling the government, exactly what we'd been telling the consumers, exactly what we'd been telling the markets,” he said.
Mark Sellier, Managing Director, Tangent Trading (GBR) pointed out that the growing trend towards more regionalisation and de-globalisation had started well before US tariffs.
“A lot of large Chinese manufacturers across the non-ferrous industry have moved manufacturing to Thailand and other countries,” he said. “Battery manufacturers etc. are moving outside so they have a hedge against any compliance issues in terms of the import of raw materials.”
“They're not importing any less copper, it's just coming from different places as the regulations change.”
He said there were some “short-term complications” and drew laughs when he reported that US exports to Canada of certain types of scrap had gone up 30% when tariffs were introduced and, “interestingly enough”, Canadian exports to China had gone up by a similar number.
Mr Sellier doubted anything could counter the dominance of China. “The capacity that's already inside China is very, very big and it supports the export market. When these things start to develop, what China does very well, as it has for 3,000 years, is it looks internally and fixes itself. The other economies around China are developing and they can't survive without China’s investment.”
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He added: “The US will be supporting their regional markets with their exports. And then the same thing in Europe and the same thing in Asia Pacific. That's what will develop eventually.”
Note: This article has been issued by BIR and has been published by AL Circle with its original information without any modifications or edits to the core subject/data.
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