“The Chinese Government’s announcement will have an impact on more than 676,000 metric tons, worth about $278 million, in U.S. scrap commodity exports to China in the first year and another 85,000 metric tons worth more than $117 million in the second year,” says ISRI President Robin Wiener. “Although we anticipated more import restrictions would be announced, we remain concerned about the effect these policies have on the global supply chain of environmentally-friendly, energy-saving scrap commodities and will instead promote an increased use of virgin materials in China, offsetting the government’s intent to protect the environment.”
The new prohibited items include the following:
• By end-2018: steel slag, post-industrial plastics, compressed auto pieces, small electric motors and insulated wires, and vessels.
• By end-2019: wood pellets, stainless steel scrap, and nonferrous scrap excluding aluminum and copper.
The policy follows earlier announcements to prohibit 24 categories of recyclable materials beginning on January 1, 2018, and the imposition of tighter quality standards on all scrap imports beginning on March 1, 2018.
