A growing number of governments restrict or tax scrap exports to keep feedstock for their own mills. This guide lists the main cases — Russia, the Gulf states, South Africa, Malaysia and others — and the EU debate, as a general map rather than a legal statement.
A growing number of governments restrict or tax scrap exports to keep feedstock for their own mills. This guide lists the main cases — Russia, the Gulf states, South Africa, Malaysia and others — and the EU debate, as a general map rather than a legal statement.
Scrap is the raw material of electric steelmaking and secondary non-ferrous production, both of which governments want for employment, lower emissions and import substitution. When exports leave a country short of scrap, the mills lobby for restrictions: export duties, licensing, quotas, minimum domestic-offer rules or outright bans. The recycling trade argues the opposite — that export markets support collection and prices. The balance shifts with the steel cycle.
Russia has applied export duties and quotas on ferrous scrap for many years and tightened them further; its scrap exports to Turkey have fallen as a result. The Gulf states — the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman — have at various times banned or licensed scrap exports to supply their own mills, and the position changes; our country pages carry the current state. South Africa runs a permit and price-preference system that gives domestic mills first refusal on scrap before export. Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia have restricted exports of certain scrap and tightened imports at the same time. India has considered export restrictions on scrap and does not export ferrous scrap in quantity. Several African countries ban or tax scrap exports to protect small domestic mills.
The European Union is the newest case: its waste-shipment rules limit exports to non-OECD countries, and European steelmakers have asked for scrap to be treated as a strategic raw material with further limits.
Checks the export position of the origin country before buying — the rules are published by trade ministries and the national recycling associations, and change without much notice. Export duties are paid by the exporter and priced into the offer; licensing can delay shipment by weeks; bans stop it. The BIR and the national associations listed on our bodies page are the quickest route to the current position.