China's crackdown on copper scrap imports will fundamentally alter global flows but it also presents a significant opportunity for entrepreneurial merchants and innovative companies, panelists said at Metal Bulletin's fourth annual copper seminar in New York on Wednesday June 6.
The Chinese central government announced in April that it will ban imports of all Category 7 scrap items by the end of 2018 and the importation of several other scrap items by 2019 on environmental grounds. Under the regulations, high-grade copper scrap, such as No. 1 and No. 2, can still be imported but medium- and low-grade copper must be refined further or find another home. "This is the new hot topic. The Chinese will try to get their hands on as much high-grade scrap as possible,"...