South Korea has stepped up radiation checks on Japanese ferrous scrap imports amid rising political and economic tensions, increasing the likelihood of weaker demand and port congestion in South Korea.
"South Korean inspectors have been boarding every single vessel transporting Japanese ferrous scrap and taking long periods of time to carry out very strict radiation checks," a source at a Japanese scrapyard told Fastmarkets on Thursday August 8.This is a big change from past practices, where only random checks were conducted on vessels carrying Japanese scrap, according to a Japanese trader."This will likely cause freight costs to increase and result in higher cfr prices for South Korean buyers," the Japanese trader said.The stricter checks by South Korea are being...