space Press Releases, News Stories

by Camila Reed, Reuters

David Bensusan of the British Secondary Metals Association said "Trade is improving and demand has increased but we are not out of the woods yet. Companies are still going under."

But any improvements were modest and trade was hampered or halted by scrap's unfair "waste" tag, which made it subject to strict environmental laws, Bensusan said.

European traders told Reuters the mood was more positive ahead of next week's international scrap conference in Rome.

On the London Metal Exchange (LME), which the scrap trade uses as a benchmark, metals prices have rallied since last year, while in the Far East the appetite for scrap was returning.

Previously the region was a voracious scrap consumer but the economic crash there meant trade in scrap slowed to a trickle.

Aluminium scrap dealers and aluminium alloy makers reported that more scrap was heading from Europe to Asia, making it harder for European alloy makers to source their secondary raw materials.

One German-based trader said: "The container shipping rates in Asia mean it is cheaper to send scrap there for $300/400 than transport it from here to Franfurt."

He saw the scrap supply situation becoming more acute later in the year if demand continued to grow.

Francis Veys, secretary general of the BIR (international recycling bureau), told Reuters the conference would also outline where the industry stood ahead of the December meeting of the U.N. Basel Convention, which controls the movements of hazardous waste.

At the meeting governments will seek to ratify a list of waste materials deemed hazardous and subject to an export ban.

Hilary Stone, a lecturer in environmental law at Brunel University, England, told Reuters the industry would also face higher operating costs with the introduction of a liability protocol by the Basel Convention.

Scrap materials which were classed as hazardous under the Basel list would be subject to the protocol.

Stone explained that if a ship or lorry transporting scrap had an accident causing pollution, all the parties in the chain from the manufacturer and trader through to shipper and insurer would be liable to pay compensation.

"They are all in the line of fire to a greater or lesser extent," Stone said.

"Insurance rates are likely to go up. It is yet another instance of the difficulties that are going to arise when you move these sorts of goods around the world which are valuable materials and not rubbish for disposal."

Over 600 delegates are expected at the BIR conference in Italy, Europe's second largest scrap-consuming country. The international recycling industry generates over $150 billion in turnover and handles over 600 million tonnes a year of raw materials, the BIR said.