China to increase import tariffs on U.S. aluminum scrap by 5% from December 15, 2019

China announced that it will impose an extra 5% tariff on imports of copper scrap and aluminium scrap from the United States from Dec. 15, 2019. This was confirmed by a list of retaliatory tariffs published by the Ministry of Finance on Friday, August 23.

Beijing had already levied a 25% tariff on U.S. aluminium scrap twice in 2018 leading to a total import tariff of 50%.  The United States had been one of its biggest suppliers of aluminium scrap to China. According to Customs data, China’s aluminium scarp import dropped to 1.6 million tonnes in 2018 from 2.2 million tonnes in 2017. According to Customs data US aluminium scrap export to China dropped 16% to 229,837 tonnes during January to June 2019 from the same period of 2018.

China, the world’s biggest metals consumer, is tightening restrictions on imports of scrap metal to adhere to an environmental campaign against foreign solid waste. China’s imports of aluminium scrap are expected to fall 16% year-on-year to 1.31 million tonnes in 2019, as the country expects lower aluminium scrap import quotas in Q4. Aluminium scrap import quotas are likely to drop to 120,000 tonnes in Q4 compared with 361,000 tonnes in Q3, Shanghai Metals Market estimated. All scrap imports are likely to be banned by China from 2021.

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