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Taizhou's imported scrap metal accounts for 20% of the national total
Release time:
13 May,2015
Taizhou's imported scrap metal accounts for 20% of the national total. In 2014, 2.093 million tons were imported. Based on the calculation that "every ton of recycled scrap metal saves 67.9 tons of water", the recycling of these scrap metal resources has driven rapid development in Taizhou's auto parts, hardware and electrical machinery, plumbing valves, and wire and cable manufacturing industries. Taizhou is one of the largest import ports for scrap metal in China, accounting for 20% of the national total. However, in recent years, due to factors such as the inverted domestic and international scrap metal prices, rising domestic labor costs, the downturn in domestic real estate and other industries, weak demand for scrap metal recycling, and stricter banking credit policies, the prices of copper and steel have continued to fall, leading to a significant decrease in the import volume of scrap metal in Taizhou.
Taizhou's imported scrap metal accounts for 20% of the national total. In 2014, a total of 2.093 million tons were imported. Based on the calculation that "for every ton of scrap metal utilized, 67.9 tons of water are saved," the recycling of these scrap metal resources has driven rapid development in the city's automotive parts, hardware and electrical machinery, plumbing valves, and wire and cable manufacturing industries.
Taizhou is one of the largest import ports for scrap metal in China, accounting for 20% of the national total. However, in recent years, due to factors such as the inverted domestic and international scrap metal prices, rising domestic labor costs, the slump in domestic real estate and other industries, weak demand for scrap metal recycling, and stricter banking credit policies, the prices of copper and steel have continued to fall, leading to a significant decrease in Taizhou's scrap metal imports.
Data: From January to April, Taizhou imported more than 600,000 tons of scrap metal.
Taizhou's geographical location is far from mines, but the local economy's demand for copper, steel, and other metals is rapidly increasing. Against this backdrop, Taizhou's scrap metal dismantling industry has emerged. The source of these scrap metals largely relies on imports.
Historical data from the Taizhou Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau shows that from 1995 to 2010, Taizhou's scrap metal imports were in a period of almost continuous growth.
In 2001, Taizhou imported 714 batches of scrap metal, totaling 645,000 tons, representing an increase of 84.5% and 35.4% respectively; in 2003, scrap metal imports increased to 3036 batches, weighing more than 1.35 million tons, an increase of 94.7% and 40.1%.
Zhang Wenjun, deputy director of the Health Department of the Taizhou Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, introduced that from 2000 to 2010, Taizhou experienced rapid growth in scrap metal imports, with an average increase of 20% to 50%.
However, starting in 2013, Taizhou's scrap metal imports began to decline.
From January to April 2015, Taizhou port imported a total of 632,000 tons of scrap metal, valued at US$430 million, a decrease of 2.2% and 19.1% respectively compared to the same period in 2014.
Looking back at 2014, 9664 batches of imported scrap metal, weighing 2.093 million tons, were valued at US$1.61 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 16.8%, 8.0%, and 17.8% respectively. Although the import volume has decreased somewhat, Zhang Wenjun stated that this rate of decline is within the normal range.
"Many ports across the country import scrap metal, including Guangdong and Tianjin." Zhang Wenjun introduced that even with the decline in imports, Taizhou's scrap metal imports still account for 20% of the national total, and all are digested locally in Taizhou.
With Luqiao and other areas as representatives, the utilization of a large amount of recycled metal resources effectively meets the huge demand of local manufacturing enterprises, driving the rapid development of the automotive parts, hardware and electrical machinery, plumbing valves, wire and cable, and hardware decoration manufacturing industries in the local area and surrounding regions.
Exploring the multiple reasons for the shortage of raw materials, leading to a year-on-year decline in scrap metal imports.
Shortages of raw materials, worker loss, and slowing downstream demand have become bottlenecks hindering the development of Taizhou's imported waste material industry. Zhang Wenjun introduced that the slowdown in global economic recovery has led to an irreversible shortage of scrap metal raw materials.
From the perspective of the international market for raw material supply, in addition to the barriers set up by developed countries concerned about the outflow of their own recyclable resources, some emerging developing countries are also eyeing international recyclable resources, competing to promote the development of their own recyclable resource industries, and introducing various preferential policies to encourage enterprises to participate in the competition for international recyclable resource raw materials, making it more difficult for China to procure recycled metals globally.
"Japan has also reduced its exports of scrap metal and begun to self-digest and utilize recycled resources." Zhang Wenjun introduced that countries like Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries have also begun to import large quantities of scrap metal, intensifying competition for scrap metal procurement.
Zhang Wenjun introduced that the recycled metal industry is a traditional labor-intensive industry, requiring a large amount of manual labor from initial dismantling to subsequent recycling and processing. In recent years, influenced by the national agricultural support policies and the development of the western region, more and more workers have chosen to work and start businesses locally, and changes in supply and demand have led to rising labor costs, thus increasing enterprise operating costs and restricting industry development.
In addition, downstream demand has become a heavy burden restricting the sustainable development of the dismantling industry. Taizhou is known as the "Capital of Valves in China," the "Hometown of Water Pumps in China," and the "Kingdom of Sewing Machines." The rapid development of these industries benefits from their low-cost production raw materials, a large part of which comes from scrap metal imported by Taizhou.
However, affected by the sluggish international demand market and domestic real estate market restrictions, the procurement of various scrap metal raw materials by various downstream industries in the first quarter decreased significantly compared to the same period last year, and the chain reaction of shrinking downstream demand led to a decline in upstream imports.
Effect: Scrap metal utilization saved 140 million tons of water for the country in 2014.
Currently, there are more than 40 enterprises engaged in scrap metal recycling in Taizhou, distributed in Luqiao, Wenling, and other areas. In recent years, Taizhou residents have had various opinions on imported scrap metal, especially concerning its environmental pollution. Zhang Wenjun provided a series of data to try and improve the image of scrap metal recycling.
It is estimated that for every ton of scrap metal utilized, 0.1 tons of copper resources, 0.04 tons of aluminum resources, and 0.75 tons of scrap steel can be obtained. This can save 15 tons of copper ore, 0.24 tons of aluminum ore, 1.2 tons of iron ore, 1.38 tons of standard coal, 67.9 tons of water, reduce waste residue by 15.7 tons, and reduce sulfur dioxide by 0.25 tons. Taking 2014 as an example, Taizhou imported 2.093 million tons of scrap metal, mainly scrap metal.
Therefore, it can be roughly estimated that in 2014, Taizhou's imported scrap metal saved the country 31.395 million tons of copper ore resources, 502,000 tons of aluminum ore, 2.512 million tons of iron ore, 2.888 million tons of standard coal, reduced waste residue by 32.861 million tons, reduced sulfur dioxide by 523,300 tons, and saved 142 million tons of water.
Zhang Wenjun introduced that in 2014, Taizhou strengthened its control over the import of scrap metal raw materials, and a total of 2 batches were found to be unqualified in environmental protection projects throughout the year, with the unqualified batch rate dropping from 5.17% in 2013 to 2.07%. The environmental quality has improved.
All substandard goods were returned as required, effectively ensuring port safety and social stability.
From January to April 2015, no unqualified scrap metal was found imported through Taizhou port.
Faced with the new situation, we will also strengthen our quality control services, enhance functional transformation, pay more attention to how to better serve local economic development, and actively support the continued development of the characteristic industry of imported waste material dismantling in Taizhou." Zhang Wenjun said that every year, relevant departments will use "big data" quality analysis to regularly inform local imported waste material utilization enterprises of the port inspection and quarantine situation, in-depth analysis of import categories, sources, unqualified types and reasons, unqualified cases, etc., allowing enterprises to grasp the overall situation of Taizhou's waste metal imports and the situation of suppliers prone to environmental protection and quality risks, helping enterprises to avoid import business risks.
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