Source: General Administration of Customs' Website
According to the customs statistics, in January-October, China imported the old metal of 9.264 million tons in total, accounting for USD 9.78 billion, so as to increase by 2.9% and 7.2% respectively as compared with those at the same period last year (similarly hereinafter). The main features of the import are listed as below:
I. The import volume in October fell after a rise. In October, China's old metal import fell to 840,000 tons, decreasing by 11.5% year on year and 17.6% at the link relative ratio.
II. The ordinary trade volume declined slightly and import via the bonded warehouse was sharply increased. In January-October, China imported the old metal of 8.525 million tons, decreasing by 0.7%, accounting for 92% of China's old metal import in total at the same period. During this period, the old metal of 206,000 tons was imported via the bonded warehouse, increasing by 3.7 times.
III. The import is mainly from European Union, Japan and USA. In January-October, China respectively imported the old metal of 2.917 million tons, 2.196 million tons and 1.06 million tons from the above countries and regions, increasing by 24.6%, 1.8% and 3.8%. The import thereof accounted for 66.6 % of China's old metal import in total.
IV. The private enterprises' import accounted for 50%, while the state-owned enterprises' import was dramatically decreased. In January-October, China's private enterprises imported the old metal of 4.628 million tons, increasing by 11.4 %, accounting for 50% of China's old metal import in total at the same period. During this period, the state-owned enterprises imported the old metal of 1.403 million tons, decreasing by 22.3%.
V. The major import variety is the waste copper, while import of the steel scrap was dramatically decreased. In January-October, China imported the waste copper of 4.842 million, increasing by 6.5% and accounting for 52.3% of China's old metal import in total. The average import price for the waste copper has been continuously lowered from USD 1196/ton in April to USD 1015/ton in October, decreasing by 21.6 % year on year and 7.2 % at link relative ratio (figure 2). At the same period, China imported the steel scrap of 2.522 million tons, drop by 6.7 %, accounting for 27.2 % of China's old metal import in total. The average import price for the steel scrap was decreased from USD 906/ton in February to USD 795 /ton in October, increasing by 2.6 % year on year and drop by 5.6 % at the link relative ratio.
Recently, due to the influence from the intensification of the international financial crisis and sharply decline of the crude price, the prices for the metal and old metal in the world were also lowered dramatically, so as to cause the heavy loss of China's enterprises specializing in the old metal import for improvement. Some waste copper importers even broke the contract to avoid more grievous loss. Currently, China's ability to fight against the market risk is lower because most old metal processing & reproduction industries are at the growth stage; also, the vast majorities thereof are small and medium-sized enterprises.
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