South East Asia Iron and Steel Institute said that scrap consumption in the ASEAN region dropped by 5% to 15.5 million tonnes in 2008. However, import rose by 13% to 9 million tonnes. Export fell moderately to 2.1 million tonnes. Domestic supply in the region dropped dramatically from 10.6 million tonnes in 2007 to 8.7 million tonnes in 2008.
Thailand's scrap consumption declined slightly by 4% to 5.3 million tonnes and accounted for 37% of total scrap consumption in the region. Malaysia, the second largest consumer of scrap in the region, experienced a sharp decrease in scrap consumption of 19% to 4.1 million tonnes in 2008. Indonesia's scrap demand registered 2.8 million tonnes, a marginal growth of 3% YoY. Vietnam enjoyed a significant growth in scrap demand, at 20% to 2.4 million tonnes, and increased its share of total scrap demand in the region from 12% in 2007 to 15% in 2008. Meanwhile Philippines maintained its share in the region at 5% with a steady volume of 820,000 tonnes.
ASEAN as a whole remained a net importer of scrap. Only Philippines and Singapore are net exporters of scrap with net export volumes of 704,000 tonnes and 236,000 tonnes, respectively. 33% of total scrap export from Philippines was to ASEAN countries. Philippines also exported a significant volume of scrap to Taiwan, South Korea and China. Singapore's scrap export to ASEAN accounted for 62% of its total export volume, most of which was to Malaysia and Indonesia.
All in all, USA remained the largest source of scrap import for the ASEAN region. Total import of scrap from USA registered 2.3 million tonnes in 2008, a decline of 6% YoY. Intra ASEAN import, however, doubled in volume to 1.76 million tonnes in 2008, representing a share of 22% of total import volume, compared to the share of 11% in 2007.
(Sourced from SEAISI)
