Posted on 20 Feb 2025
The volume of ferrous scrap recycled from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) in China is expected to recover this month from the January drop and rise firmly as processing companies are actively ramping up their operations after the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday that ended earlier this month, Mysteel's recent survey suggests.
During January, a total of 34,100 units of ELVs were scrapped and shredded by the 85 domestic automotive scrapping and dismantling companies under Mysteel's tracking, down by a large 32.8% from December, while the ELV inventories they held increased by 1.5% on month to reach 14,800 units.
The significant drop in the availability of recycled scrap was caused by the fact that most processing firms stopped operations to enjoy their CNY holiday breaks late last month and did not resume business until mid-February, Mysteel Global noted.
For this month, the dismantling companies are seen expediting their processing because they could generally make healthy profits when selling their scrap materials, thanks to the resilient steel scrap prices in the country, Mysteel's survey showed.
As of February 18, China's national composite steel scrap price was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 2,550.41/tonne ($350.3/t) including the 13% VAT, higher by Yuan 8.08/t from the end of January.
On the other hand, the comparatively stronger cost effectiveness of steel scrap against hot metal is prompting steelmakers to buy more scrap materials to meet their current production needs, Mysteel's other survey showed. This will likely encourage scrap firms to ramp up their collecting and processing.
More importantly, the central government's enhanced support for the automotive trade-in project will also spur more consumers to replace their old vehicles and buy new ones, which will give a boost to scrap supply from ELVs, as Mysteel Global reported.
Mysteel estimates that the total number of ELVs recycled in February by the 85 sampled car dismantling and scrapping companies in China will rise to around 40,000 units.
Source:Mysteel Global
