The world's biggest scrap metal importers, and why they buy

Where traded scrap ends up

When scrap leaves the country it was collected in, it is not going just anywhere. A small number of markets absorb most of the traded volume, and the reasons are consistent. Knowing which markets matter, and why, helps you read price movements and understand why a buyer is interested in your material.

There is no single league table for all scrap, because ferrous scrap (steel and iron) and non-ferrous scrap (copper, aluminium and the rest) are traded in different markets and counted separately. This page uses the most recent published figures for each, and says which is which.

Ferrous scrap: the 2024 importers

These figures come from the Bureau of International Recycling's World Steel Recycling in Figures series for January to December 2024. They are verified data for part of the world's steelmaking, not a complete census, and different sources (for example customs-code trade statistics for 2023, which also put Turkey first and India second) cut the data differently, so compare like with like. Global trade in ferrous scrap was also weaker in 2024: in the first half it fell 6 percent year on year to 25.9 million tonnes, which analysts linked partly to a surge in low-priced Chinese steel exports reducing demand for scrap elsewhere.

Non-ferrous scrap: a different picture

China still matters most in copper. It is the largest importer of copper scrap, taking roughly 40 percent of global imports, and its 2024 imports recovered to about 2.25 million tonnes out of global copper scrap trade of around 6 million tonnes. That is still well below its historical highs, because China tightened what scrap it allows in from 2018.

That tightening redirected material. Malaysia became a transit and processing hub: its copper scrap imports rose from about 17,000 tonnes in 2017 to a peak of about 570,000 tonnes in 2019 before easing to about 448,000 tonnes in 2021, and it has been a leading supplier of aluminium scrap to China. This is the background to Malaysia's import permit system, covered in Export Scrap Metal: Australia to Malaysia.

Treat these as indicators of where non-ferrous demand sits rather than as a ranking of all scrap. Figures come from industry and market-research reporting for individual metals and years.

The pattern behind the ranking

Every large steel scrap importer shares one feature: significant electric arc furnace capacity. An electric arc furnace melts scrap, sometimes with other metallic inputs, to make new steel. The older route, the blast furnace, starts from iron ore and coal and uses scrap only as a minor additive. Countries that rely on arc furnaces need steady scrap, and when domestic supply runs short they import it. Turkey's mills are the clearest case, running almost entirely on imported scrap.

The ranking therefore tracks steelmaking capacity and manufacturing activity far more closely than it tracks the size of an economy, and it moves as capacity moves. India has been adding arc furnace capacity quickly, though its 2024 imports fell. The UAE is a market to watch rather than a leader: it is not a top-five destination, but Emirates Steel Arkan has said it is willing to buy more than 1 million tonnes of scrap a year, and Global Energy Monitor lists its arc furnace output at about 3.25 million tonnes in 2024, up from about 2.7 million in 2020. Its furnaces run on a mix of direct reduced iron and scrap. See Export Scrap Metal: India to UAE and Export Scrap Metal: Australia to UAE for how that plays out for exporters.

What the markets mean for you as a seller

Knowing the biggest markets is a starting point, not a strategy.

• Demand creates your price. When arc furnace capacity expands or contracts somewhere, scrap prices around the world feel it, even if you never ship overseas, because domestic buyers compete with export demand for the same material.
• The biggest market is not automatically your best one. The best price for your material, grade and quantity might come from a buyer in a smaller market, or from a domestic buyer with lower freight costs.
• Grade and documentation matter more the further it travels. Importing countries impose quality thresholds and paperwork. See How to Grade Your Scrap for how buyers read a description.

The export guides in this library cover the main routes: US to India, Canada to India, India to the UAE, the UK to the UAE and Australia to Malaysia. City-level views of three of these markets are on the Istanbul, Mumbai and Dubai pages.

Who supplies the big buyers

The same BIR data shows where the scrap comes from. Turkey's three largest suppliers in 2024 were the United States (about 4.5 million tonnes), the Netherlands (about 2.8 million tonnes, up almost 28 percent) and the United Kingdom (about 2.2 million tonnes, up almost 73 percent). India's two largest were the United States (about 1.5 million tonnes) and the United Kingdom (about 1 million tonnes, down 45 percent). In other words, the major flows run from North America and Western Europe to the arc furnace steelmakers of the Mediterranean and South Asia.

The Netherlands figure reflects Rotterdam's role as a consolidation port, where scrap from several neighbouring countries is gathered before export, as described on the Rotterdam page. For the exporter's side of the main routes, see Export Scrap Metal: US to India and Export Scrap Metal: Canada to India.

Frequently asked questions