Cold front? Chinese government attempts to control waste flows could cool the importing of copper scrap

Recycling Today, Jan, 2005 by Dan Sandoval

As with most types of metal, robust demand for copper scrap from Chinese buyers has propelled pricing for the material to record levels. This surge in demand has soaked up a tremendous amount of copper scrap throughout the world, including the United States. The record prices have resulted in consternation on the part of many domestic consumers, who find it difficult to compete with China's open-checkbook approach.

Reflecting this anxiousness, the U.S. Commerce Department received a request by a host of copper consumers to restrict the export of scrap copper earlier this year. (The request was turned down.) However, some observers wonder whether China's shifting customs policies could have an impact on the import of copper scrap.

Most industry observers agree that during the long term, copper scrap shipments to China will grow, and quite significantly, too. However, for some scrap exporters, several issues are potential causes for concern in the short term.

LEFT IN THE COLD. Starting Jan. 1, 2005, anyone who is looking to ship scrap material directly to China will need a designated shipping number. Without such a number, container lines have been instructed not to put containers on their vessels.

China's Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine agency (AQSIQ) is overseeing the new customs and inspection numbering system. According to the agency's mandate, companies that do not have a license number issued by the government will be prohibited from shipping recyclable materials to China.

While the mandate appears relatively clear-cut, the actual path that AQSIQ has taken in exercising its mandate has been far from straight. Originally announced more than one year ago, the deadline has been pushed back continually as companies shipping material to China have faced a host of roadblocks and uncertainty about forms, deadlines, requirements and specifications.

Even now, with reportedly slightly more than 2,000 companies worldwide having received their AQSIQ numbers, questions remain about the actual effect of the policy.

Scott Horne, legal counsel with the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI), Washington, says ISRI has been working with AQSIQ to provide accurate information to recyclers throughout the past year. "We have met with them to clarify their notices," he says.

Horne adds that AQSIQ is not as concerned with the commercial aspects associated with importing, but "with the waste material."

Because of the research by ISRI and other groups, Home says that most people understand the process, though some trepidation remains for those who do not have licenses. However, it is better than a year ago, he says.

Regardless, changes have been made, and some of the larger shippers of copper are taking steps to ensure that they can continue to ship material to China.

Despite China's attempt to bring some type of stability to the recyclables market and to improve the quality specifications, recyclers are still uncertain.

FROZEN IN THEIR TRACKS. Joseph Chen, with Tung Tai's San Jose, Calif., office, says one of the biggest shipping issues right now for exporters is the large backlog of containers at U.S. and Chinese ports.

Tung Tai is a large scrap recycling company with a significant presence in China and the United States. "Container lines have big problems," Chen says. "Lots of containers are tied up in the port."

This is slowing down the shipping process overall, and the flow of copper scrap, as Chen says that China presently consumes around 30 percent of the available scrap copper in the world.

Supporting the notion that the Chinese copper industry is growing, at a recent metals conference in China, Wang Jiwei, secretary general of the Renewable Metals Branch of the China Non-Ferrous Metals Industry Association, said that China's scrap copper usage has more than doubled throughout the past decade. This jump is expected to continue during the next several years, as China, bereft of many of the essential natural resources, continues to suck up a tremendous amount of scrap material.

Other industry reports show that China's import of scrap copper during the first half of last year was more than 10 percent higher than figures for the same period in 2003.

The result of this sharp increase in consumption has been world copper prices that have increased 40 percent during the last year, reaching a 16-year high in October 2004.

Copper users are taking metal out of storage, with analysts expecting demand to exceed production from mines and recycled scrap this year. Consumption will grow 7.7 percent to 16.7 million metric tons, according to a Societe Generale forecast, beating output by 850,000 tons.

Steve Gilbert, president of Global Recycling, a New York state-based scrap exporter, says that many companies are still not that concerned with AQSIQ policies.

"Most vendors don't care, as long as the brokers have license numbers," Gilbert says. "However," he adds, "steamship lines have much larger concerns."

Chen agrees that ship lines have become more concerned with the process, and he says that they are being more cautious. "Without the number, they aren't allowing the containers on their vessels," he says.