Raw materials session of "Steel in the Raw"

At SteelOrbis' and Irepas' "Steel in the Raw" conference in Milan Monday, representatives from the companies Black Country Metals, Assofermet, and Metal Expert spoke to the attendees about the raw materials market. Peter Matthews CMG of Black Country Metals gave a presentation about the deep seascrap freightmarket, focusing on global import and export trends for ferrousscrap. Mr. Matthews CMG noted that the majorscrapexporters in the world in 2005 were the USA, the European Union, andRussia, with theUS(the world's second largestscrap-exporting country;Russiais the first.) exporting 10.5 million metric tons ofscrapin 2005. Mr. Matthews CMG also listed the majorscrapimporting countries in 2005 in descending order:Turkey,China, SouthKorea,Spain,Italy, andGermany. His statistics show that EU countries' exports to SouthKorea, however, declined sharply in 2005, while EUscrapexports to developingIndiarose significantly in 2005. The top three importers ofUS scrapin 2005 wereChina,Turkey, and SouthKorea. Mr. Matthews CMG closed his presentation by giving the audience hisopinionthat the flow ofscrapfrom one country to another is extremely important, such that if this flow of materials were to stop for two weeks, the entire world market would collapse. Roberto Lunardi of the company Assofermet shared his take on the European raw materials market in his speech, from an Italian point of view. Mr. Lunardi told the audience that in Italian local supply does not provide enoughscrapto feed the domestic demand for electric arc furnace mills, therefore the country imports a great deal.Italydiffers from other European countries in this respect; in most European countries, the four or five biggestscrapmanufacturers can fulfill domestic need. He implied that this is not a disastrous situation, just a challenge to the Italian steel industry that may be resolved in time. Andrey Pupchenko of event sponsor Metal Expert shared his analysis of the raw materials market, from aCISstandpoint. He said that while 2004 to 2005 was a period of great consolidation in theCIS scrapmarket, it is still under considerable restrictions of the local governments. His company's statistics show that inRussiaandUkraine, deliveries into the domestic markets are growing, while exports are slightly down. Mr. Pupchenko shared his point of view that the surplus ofsteelmakingcapacities will eventually drivescrapexport down.