China's scrap market remained weak in May

According to statistics, China's scrap imports totalled around 41,500 tonnes in May, down 35.5% from the previous month. Among them, imports from Japan decreased by 33.6% m-o-m to 23,500 tonnes, but the source from Japan continued to account for a large share of 56.6% of China's total scrap imports.

Market participants said that both the import market and the domestic market have been sluggish as scrap prices have been uncompetitive recently and China's steel mills have reduced production, which has resulted in low demand for scrap.

In the first five months of this year, China's scrap imports totalled around 272,000 tonnes.