The prices for chopped scrap reached the peak in January at the level of $ 452 per ton and completed a year at the lowest level, decreasing by 18.1% to $ 370 per ton. The production of steel in the United States decreased by 2.4% last year (to 79.5 million tons), but since about 70% of steel in the United States is now produced in electric arc furnaces (EDP), scrap consumption has increased by 1.6%, according to data of the US Census Bureau, generalized by the US Geological Service (USGS).
One of the factors that contributed to reducing scrap prices was to reduce demand for export. The United States remain the largest exporter of steel scrap in the world. In 2024, they exported 14.9 million tons of material, they were followed by the UK (6.9 million) and Japan (6.5 million).
However, despite the significant increase in exports to Turkey in 2023 and 2024, scrap exports from the United States have decreased annually over the past three years. In 2024, scrap exports from the United States decreased by 8.4% in annual terms after a decrease by 7.9% in 2023 and 1.2% in 2022.
Loma export from the United States may have reached a peak of 17.9 million tons in 2021. The addition of significant capacities EAF has increased the potential of domestic consumption in recent years, and more planned. Meps International evaluates that from 2023 to 2027, about 10 million tons of new EAF capacities will be commissioned in North America. Although part of these capacities can use DRI or cast iron, the majority will rely on scrap as the main raw material.
“In the long run, the introduction of new steel capacities in the United States can reduce exports and raise scrap prices,” says Laura Hodges, a steel analyst at Meps International. “However, in the short term, the problems of excess capacities that are currently pursuing global markets are, will exert reducing pressure on scrap exports and prices in the USA.”
According to the US Department of Trade, Türkiye was the largest importer of American steel scrap in 2024. Last year, more than 4.4 million tons of material were exported to the country. Over the past decade, Türkiye usually imported from 3.5 to 4 million tons of American scrap per year. However, Türkiye lost about 1.5 million tons of annual supplies with the introduction of new measures to control the export of Russian scrap in 2022. Türkiye imports more than 20 million tons of scrap every year, and the United States is its largest supplier, which accounts for more than 23% of the total imports.
Demand for American scrap from buyers in Bangladesh also steadily grew over the past decade, which has made the country the third largest importer in 2024. According to Bigmint, the annual production facilities in Bangladesh currently exceed nine million tons, most of which have been added in recent years and scrap has been used as the main raw materials.
Meanwhile, the import of scrap from the USA to Mexico has been significantly reduced over the past two years. Mexico is the second largest purpose point of scrap from the United States, but a decrease in steel production in 2023 and 2024 reduced demand. According to WorldSteel, Mexico produced 13.7 million tons of steel in 2024, which is lower than a recent peak of 18.5 million tons in 2021. Closing Altos Hornos de Mexico (AHMSA) in November 2023 - the result of financial difficulties - destroyed four million tons of domestic steel capacities.
Another country that imported significantly less scrap from the United States is South Korea. Export to South Korea reached a peak of just over a million tons in 2019. Five years later, in 2024, this figure was only 134,000 tons.
