They were also given the chance to see how a recently-installed shredder has allowed the Suffolk recycling company to increase the amount of scrap metal it processes by 40-50%, with an 80% increase in the amount of metal it exports outside of the EU, to the likes of China, for reprocessing.
Speaking during the visit, the president of the CMRA, Wang Gongmin, revealed that, with two-thirds of scrap reprocessed in China coming from overseas markets, imports from Europe were now the third largest source of scrap metal for Chinese reprocessors.
And, BMRA director-general Ian Hetherington said that he anticipated that the proportion of Europe's scrap metal exports to China that came from the UK would increase from 45% to 50%, which he said was “a very substantial chunk of the world market”.
David Dodds, joint managing director of Sackers, said that the Chinese market had become particularly important for UK metal recyclers with the slowdown in ferrous scrap use in the UK.
He explained that China was “important because local steel mills are on a decline, their consumption is up to 40 to 50% down, whereas the Far East is still on a growing curve.
“The economy is not as good as last year but without question their need for raw feed remains,” he added.
Economy
Commenting on the Chinese economy in general, Mr Wang claimed that “right now China is showing some signs of recovery”, adding that, following a government stimulus package, the Chinese markets were “going stable”.
And, looking to the future, he said: “The Western economy has some influence on the Chinese economy; we hope the developed economies will recover soon so it will have some impact on the Chinese economy as well.”
Contracts
Addressing concerns over some Chinese metal reprocessors breaking their contracts with UK metals recyclers, Mr Wang acknowledged that “the price of markets fell down dramatically and lots of companies broke their contracts”, but noted that this was not just an issue in China.
He added: “Through this financial crisis we see many small-scale companies going bankrupt. What we can do is encourage more overseas companies to do more business with large-scale companies who will never break their contracts. What the CMRA can do is provide information about companies that are solid.”
And, he explained that: “One of our major goals of the visit is, if the companies see each other face-to-face, it is more easy to have successful business relations.”
Mr Hetherington echoed those sentiments, revealing that the BMRA had plans to visit China in November where it would look to “possibly develop ways that future disagreements can be solved with personal relationships”.
As well as visiting Sackers' yard, the CMRA delegation was also scheduled to visit metal recycling yards in Sheffield and Warrington.
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