China issues second 2020 scrap import quota

China has approved a new quota for more than 35,000t of copper, aluminium and ferrous scrap imports for delivery in 2020.

China's Solid Waste and Chemicals Management Centre, an agency of the environment ministry, today issued the small quota round, totalling 37,290t of scrap metal.

It is the second quota round issued for 2020 following a larger quota issued on 23 December for the first quarter specifically. The new quota released today did not specify delivery for any particular period this year.

The new quota for copper scrap — under harmonised tariff code 7404000090 — totalled 25,566t. Of this 5,050t was allocated to the port of Tianjin, 7,576t to the Shanghai-Ningbo region and 4,110 to multiple ports in southern China.

The aluminium scrap quota — under harmonised tariff code 7602000090 — totalled 7,544t, with 3,090t going to Nanhai in southern China, 174t going to Ningbo, 1,030t to Dalian and 100t to Tianjin.

The ferrous scrap quota amounted to 3,180t, with 1,440t allocated to Ningbo and 840t to Tianjin. A significant portion of the ferrous scrap quota is for alloy steel scrap under harmonised tariff code 720429000.

The total Chinese scrap import quota currently approved for 2020 is 582,740t, of which copper accounts for 296,421t, aluminium 283,041t and ferrous 2,280t.

China's copper and aluminium scrap quotas for 2020 are already both around half of what was approved for the second half of 2019, for which the copper quota was 548,232t and aluminium was 486,395t.

Chinese copper and aluminium scrap imports dropped sharply in 2019 as a result of the wider import restrictions, alongside the introduction of the quota on 1 July. The country's January-November imports of copper and aluminium scrap dropped by 58.1pc and 50.3pc on the year to 1.42mn t and 1.37mn t, respectively.

By Ronan Murphy