Demand to remain strong for non-ferrous metals says BIR World Mirror

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The latest BIR World Mirror for non-ferrous metals has said that there is “substantial” demand for scrap material.

BIR non-ferrous metals division president Robert Stein wrote: “The good news for our industry is that there is good and substantial demand for our material. We have commodities providing a viable alternative to virgin materials that are far more expensive to source than what we have to offer.”

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However, David Chiao from Uni-All Group in the USA wrote that trading of non-ferrous metals into China was limited prior to the New Year holiday due to the slowdown among consumers and manufacturers. But he also expected a more relaxed Chinese banking policy and a record low LME copper inventory for the past 24 months would help demand.

With Chinese smelters and consumers closed for the New Year holiday, he expected if would take another 15 days before the market returned to normal.

Sebastian Perron from American Iron & Metal Co in Canada said that right up until the start of the Chinese New year, that China remained consistent in its appetite for scrap, with secondary aluminium doing well in particular.

While Dhawal Shah of Metco Marketing (India) PVT said that the recovery in the value of the rupee recently and China’s absence in the market due to its holiday had helped “importers to go bargain-hunting and fill up their short positions”.

Ralf Schmitz from VDM, the German Federation of Metal Traders wrote: “Although there is more optimism in Germany compared to last autumn, a large degree of uncertainty still surrounds the market outlook for the coming months. However, domestic conditions appear to be much better than was expected a half-year ago. Nearly all analysts are counting on an economic improvement for the current year, with only the scale of the increase in dispute.

“Meanwhile, export-oriented traders are anticipating solid demand from Asia and the USA.”