company news about De-liberalization of the international steel scrap market accelerates

According to a report by SteelRadar and Financial Union on June 24-25, the global metals trade pattern is being reshuffled after US President Trump's decision to impose a steep 50% tariff on imported steel and aluminum. European steelmakers and metal producers are now lobbying the EU to impose export tariffs or restrictions on scrap exports "in the coming weeks" in response to an influx of scrap metal into the US triggered by the Trump administration's trade policies.
With the deepening of the global green transformation, the carbon reduction path choice of the steel industry is becoming a key variable in the game between industrial policy and international trade. Steel scrap, a metallurgical raw material that has long been regarded as "low-end recycling", is quietly becoming a "green key resource" in the process of low-carbon transformation of the steel industry. This transformation not only stems from the renewable attribute and mature process foundation of steel scrap, but also reflects its balance advantage between carbon emission reduction and industrial reality. With the increasing dependence of countries on local resources in their green strategies, steel scrap has gradually evolved from a free-circulating commodity to the object of policy priority control and guarantee.
As a result, the pattern of steel scrap trade is undergoing structural changes: the European Union plans to impose export limits, the United States is absorbing global resources through price mechanisms, emerging economies are stepping up local recycling systems, and international flows are increasingly subject to institutional constraints. In this context, while maintaining export restrictions, China gradually liberalizes the import of recycled steel raw materials, and is expected to promote the forward-looking layout of the steel scrap strategic system through standardization and systematic construction during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period.
This paper will focus on the global revaluation process of steel scrap value, analyze how international trade policy promotes it to complete the role transformation from "recycling" to "key raw material", and analyze the trend of the reshaping of international steel scrap trade pattern and the direction that Chinese steel can explore to meet the challenges.
Steel scrap is experiencing from "price material" to "policy resource"
Role change of
Under the background of accelerating global green transformation, the exploration of low-carbon path in the iron and steel industry presents a diversified pattern. However, after 2024, the "ideal technology route" represented by hydrogen metallurgy has encountered practical constraints in many countries: lagging hydrogen energy infrastructure, difficulty in cost control, incomplete policy subsidies and carbon price support mechanism, and the pace of promotion of relevant projects has slowed down significantly.
In June 2025 Cleveland-Cliffs announced the cancellation of its hydrogen-based steelmaking project in Middletown, Ohio. The $1.3 billion project, which received $500 million in Energy Department funding, was seen as a demonstration of green hydrogen steelmaking in North America. Clewlane-clews said a lack of hydrogen supply, policy uncertainty and weak return expectations made the project "unviable." In the same month, ArcelorMittal also announced the suspension of its DRI-EAF projects in Bremen and Eisenhuttenstadt due to high electricity costs and delayed federal policy support. In line with its phased approach to carbon reduction in Europe, the company has turned its focus to feasibility planning for the construction of electric arc furnaces, with priority given to countries with controllable power costs and predictable policies. Arcelormittal announced in May that it would build an electric arc furnace in Dunkirk, France. These changes highlight that although the path of "hydrogen + direct reduction + electric furnace" has long-term strategic significance, it is still difficult for the steel industry to achieve a "green breakthrough in industrialization" in the short term under the condition that technology maturity, economic feasibility and policy guarantee mechanism have not yet matched.
In contrast, the practical advantages of the scrap - electric furnace path are accelerating back to the mainstream vision - mature technology, convenient deployment, and remarkable carbon emission reduction results. Relevant statistics show that electric furnace steelmaking can reduce carbon emissions by about 70% compared with the traditional blast furn-converter process, and the carbon footprint can be further reduced if 100% steel scrap material is used. Under the actual conditions of the current policy window and energy structure, the steel scrap path is generally regarded as the most operational green carbon reduction option.
In this "green realism" atmosphere, the strategic attributes of steel scrap are being systematically revalued. On the one hand, its low carbon attribute and recycling value make steel scrap itself become an important support to build a "low carbon - closed loop - localized" manufacturing system; On the other hand, as countries implement policy interventions in their trade flows, the value of steel scrap is no longer determined by supply and demand in a single market, but is influenced by factors such as energy policies, environmental regulations, and geo-trade patterns.
From price material to policy resource, steel scrap is experiencing essential transformation of its role. It is not only the "direct material" for industrial carbon reduction, but also the entry point for global green policy adjustment and resource strategy, which also lays the foundation for the reshaping of its international trade pattern.
Eu as international steel scrap market "export control representative"
In the context of global green transformation and increasingly urgent resource security, the low-carbon attributes and recycling value of steel scrap have prompted many countries to integrate it into their green industrial strategies, thus promoting its rapid rise in policy status from a traditional free-circulation commodity to a key resource with "local priority and limited export". The international scrap market is accelerating "de-liberalization".
A report by the Ukrainian think tank GMK Center in April 2025 pointed out that 48 countries around the world have imposed restrictions on steel scrap exports, more than a third of which have adopted direct bans. With the implementation of the revised regulations on waste transport in the European Union and the export tariff policy of Uzbekistan, the global scrap export channel will be further tightened. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) even predicts that the global steel scrap market will have a supply and demand gap of 15 million tons by 2030, with increasingly fierce competition for resources.
The European Union is representative of this policy trend. In the Steel and Metals Action Plan issued by the EU government in March 2025, it was clearly pointed out that excessive steel scrap exports have become one of the obstacles restricting the implementation of Europe's "green steel" strategy. In order to ensure the EU's domestic electric furnace capacity and supply of recycled raw materials, the EU plans to ensure the priority allocation of steel scrap within the EU through trade tools. At the same time, the EU's new Waste Transport Regulation, which will take effect in May 2024, also stipulates that from May 2027, the EU will ban the export of non-hazardous waste such as steel scrap to non-Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries that fail to prove they have the ability to handle it environmentally. This institutional arrangement essentially excludes most developing countries from EU scrap export destinations, further reinforcing its "local recycling first" pattern.
This orientation is divisive within the EU. Local steel enterprises advocate restricting the export of scrap steel to ensure the supply of low-carbon raw materials for manufacturing; Local recycling industry associations such as EuRIC and the German Association of Metal Traders and Recyclers (VDM) worry that excessive government intervention will hurt market vitality and investment confidence, and may even violate relevant WTO rules. It can be seen that how to strike a balance between "green supply protection" and "market efficiency" has become a key problem for the implementation of EU green policies.
Different from the EU's idea of "export control," the US chooses to guide the flow of resources through the price mechanism to maximize local utilization. Starting from March 2025, in accordance with Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, the US government raised tariffs on imported steel and aluminum products to 25%, and further raised them to 50% in June this year, completely removing exemptions for Canada, the European Union, Mexico and other major trading partners. It is worth noting that steel scrap and aluminum scrap are explicitly excluded from the scope of this tariff.
Steel scrap, a key renewable resource, remains free to move in and out of the U.S. and isn't subject to new tariffs, according to the Recycled Materials Association and several trade-focused lawyers. This arrangement quickly led local US manufacturers to turn to duty-free scrap procurement to avoid the pressure of rising raw material prices. Relevant statistics show that the "arbitrage window" caused by the tariff difference once reached $750 per ton of scrap metal, driving a large flow of global scrap metal to the United States. Countries in the European region are highly concerned about this. The European steel Association Eurofer and the European Aluminium Association have called on the European Commission to establish an export licensing mechanism for scrap metal as soon as possible to prevent the "outflow" of resources from erodes the foundation of Europe's green industrial chain. This also reflects that scrap metal resources have become a highly sensitive "policy lever" in the green manufacturing system.
It can be said that the United States does not guarantee the supply of raw materials through traditional export restrictions, but attracts the inflow of high-quality scrap metals from around the world through the price strategy of "high tariff + low threshold", which realizes the strengthening of the local recycling system and the slow release of costs in the manufacturing link. This pattern is having a ripple effect on steel scrap policy around the world, forcing other countries to re-examine the strategic position and regulatory boundaries of steel scrap. On a global scale, the pattern of steel scrap circulation is undergoing structural reconstruction. Behind the transformation from "free circulation" to "controlled allocation" is the superposition of the triple goals of green transformation, resource security and industrial competition.
China's strategic deployment and policy evolution
Usher in a critical juncture
In the face of the profound remodeling of the global steel scrap circulation pattern, China has continued to promote the reconstruction of the steel scrap policy system oriented by resource security, green transformation and standard construction in recent years, and ushered in a key node in June 2025.
On June 1, 2025, the revised national standard of Recycled Steel Raw Materials (GB/T 39733-2024) has been officially implemented, further improving the definition and classification of imported steel scrap from the level of technical standards, and providing institutional basis for international trade. Subsequently, on June 10, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and other six ministries and commissions jointly issued the Notice on matters related to the Import management of recycled steel raw Materials, which made it clear that starting from August 1, 2025, China will no longer restrict the import of steel scrap mixes. This marks a substantial loosening of China's import policy for recycled steel raw materials, and is another policy inflection point after the reclassification of "recycled steel" in 2021.
This simultaneous adjustment of policies and standards shows that China is focusing on building a systematic governance framework for recycled steel raw materials, shifting from "strict control" to "orderly opening", aiming to improve the availability of high-quality steel scrap resources, support the improvement of domestic electric furnace ratio and the realization of green transformation goals.
At the same time, some experts have issued a document suggesting that China's steel scrap development target during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, by the end of the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the comprehensive steel scrap ratio of steelmaking in China will be increased to 30% (about 21% during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period), and the steel scrap processing capacity will reach 230 million tons; A unified national system has been formed in standards, recycling, intelligent inspection and judgment, and processing equipment. Policy orientation is increasingly focused on improving resource security capacity and industrial chain resilience, and promoting steel scrap to play a greater supporting role in the raw material end.
It can be seen that China's strategic deployment of steel scrap is gradually shifting from the single "export restriction" in the past to the equal emphasis on "import optimization + industrial system construction". In the context of intensified global competition for green resources, this standards-based and market-oriented policy adjustment will not only help stabilize the domestic supply of raw materials for green transformation, but also enhance China's institutional participation and rule adaptability in global renewable resources governance.
With the new stage of green transformation from "path exploration" to "system construction", steel scrap is gradually transforming from traditional recycling to an important resource in the green manufacturing system. Its carbon reduction potential, technology maturity and resource availability make it a realistic and strategic material option in national policies. At present, the United States, Europe and other economies are promoting the reconstruction of steel scrap circulation rules by means of policy regulation, standard setting and green certification. This trend strengthens the policy orientation of resource allocation and also brings new institutional variables to the global scrap market. China is making simultaneous efforts at the level of standards, trade policies and industrial system, and gradually building a more resilient and adaptable steel scrap resource system by promoting unified standards, optimizing import mechanism and improving processing system. Under the background of deepening global green transformation, how to improve resource utilization efficiency and participate in global rule-making will be the key topic in the process of revaluation of steel scrap strategic value.