USE OF SCRAP SUBSTITUTES IN THE IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRY
Despite the recent general forecast that there could soon be a shortage of
good quality scrap, the 1997 UN/ECE Iron and Steel Scrap review foresees no
shortage of ferrous supplies at the global level because of the increasing scrap
supply from "old" industrialized countries and increasing amounts of scrap
substitutes. The total amount of scrap substitutes is estimated at 40 million
tonnes in 1996, reaching a possible 60 to 75 million tonnes by the year 2000.
Such estimates dissipate any fear of a scrap shortage. In fact, they even
point to a potential oversupply of "metallics" or "primary metals" at the
beginning of the 21st century. Supply of scrap is therefore not a problem;
what will be a problem is the gradual deterioration of scrap quality and the
legislative confusion over scrap trade. Supply and demand on the world scrap
market was balanced at about 420 million tonnes in 1996.
Iron and Steel Scrap shows that there now is a world scrap market and
that the level of prices is more or less the same at any given time in all the
industrialized countries. In developing countries, however, where scrap has to
be imported over long distances, transportation costs raise the price levels.
There is thus a strong incentive to produce scrap substitutes or even to return
to the
conventional iron and steel plant concept, as is happening in a number of Asian
countries.
The review also looks at the scrap trade within a country or a region
compared with international maritime trade. The industrialized countries have now
clearly become self-sufficient or exporters. This has been the case in western
Europe and now applies to eastern Europe as well. The United States, in
particular, is interesting in that it remains the largest scrap exporter while also
being the main importer of directly reduced iron / hot briquetted iron (DRI/HBI), and
is beginning to produce DRI and iron carbide.
The review deals with steel production, scrap supply and demand, scrap trade
and prices, scrap substitutes, country commentaries and future trends, based on
the evolution which took place between the years 1980 and 1996. It provides
the total scrap balance in tabular form for each of the 51 major steel producing
countries for the period 1980-1996; and contains 27 tables covering scrap
production, consumption by manufacturing processes, requirements and trade.
The 1997 Iron and Steel Scrap review is available, quoting Sales
No. E.97.II.E.15, through the usual United Nations sales agents in various
countries or from the United Nations Office at Geneva, priced at US$ 60.