Posted on 08 Nov 2024
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the country's governing body for industrial sectors, announced on November 6 the names of 111 ferrous scrap collecting and recycling enterprises in the latest batch that have just obtained its tentative certification. Public opinions are being sought before formal approval can be conferred, according to the announcement.
This marks the 12th batch of qualified steel scrapyards that the MIIT has nominated. The ministry also plans to remove 17 scrap suppliers from the list of enterprises approved in the previous 11 batches, though it gave no specific reason for the removal, as announced.
Assuming all adjustments proceed as planned, the total number of approved scrap recyclers would increase from the current 825 to 919, Mysteel Global noted.
Driven by strong government advocacy, Chinese ferrous scrap recycling companies have become increasingly proactive in applying for the MIIT certification, and the total number of approved enterprises has shown steady growth over the past decade, Mysteel Global observed.
"The number will exceed 1,000 by the end of next year," a market analyst based in Shanghai believes. "After that, however, the total number is expected to stabilize," he predicts.
In fact, the currently 825 approved scrap processing companies have a combined processing capacity of around 360 million tonnes/year, which is more than sufficient to meet China's steel scrap demand in recent years, but their actual annual processing volume stands at only about 113 million tonnes, Mysteel's survey showed.
As such, the government may focus more on lifting the capacity utilization of currently approved enterprises rather than further increasing the number of companies in the future, the Shanghai analyst suggests.
The MIIT will strictly review the previously accredited companies, removing those that no longer meet standards and reallocating their slots to new enterprises, according to the analyst.
Source:Mysteel Global
