‘Not a dustbin’: Cambodia to send plastic waste back to the US and Canada

Cambodia has announced it will send 1,600 tonnes of plastic waste found in shipping containers back to the US and Canada, as south-east Asian countries revolt against an onslaught of rubbish shipments.

China’s decision to ban foreign plastic waste imports last year threw global recycling into chaos, leaving developed nations struggling to find countries to send their trash.

Eighty-three shipping containers full of rubbish were found on Tuesday at Sihanoukville, Cambodia’s main port, according to a spokesman for the country’s environment minister.

“Cambodia is not a dustbin where foreign countries can dispose of out-of-date e-waste, and the government also opposes any import of plastic waste and lubricants to be recycled in this country,” he said.

Neth Pheaktra said 70 of the containers were shipped from the US and 13 came from Canada. Both countries are major exporters of such waste.

A government committee established to look into the matter will investigate how and why the containers ended up in Cambodia, he said. He added that any company found to be involved in bringing in the waste would be fined and brought to court.

Images of officials inspecting the containers, stuffed with bundled plastic, riled up Cambodian social media users.

The trash delivery was a “serious insult”, Transparency International Cambodia’s executive director, Preap Kol, said in a Facebook post.

Tuesday’s discovery followed a statement at a cabinet meeting last week by the prime minister, Hun Sen, that Cambodia is not the dumping ground for any kind of waste, and does not allow the import of any kinds of plastic waste or other recyclables.

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Macro uncertainties led to corrections in aluminium, copper, zinc prices: Icra

Rating agency Icra July 3 said macroeconomic uncertainties led to corrections in global prices of aluminium, copper and zinc in the last one year. It further said that the production growth of these three non-ferrous metals was even lower than the rise in demand.

“Even though international prices of the three non-ferrous metals viz. aluminium, copper and zinc have witnessed corrections of 20 per cent, 13 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively in the last one year, primarily due to macroeconomic uncertainties on the back of ongoing trade wars and other country-specific factors, the fundamental supply-demand balance suggests otherwise,” Icra said in a statement.

While global consumption growth of aluminium and copper during the first quarter of 2019 was muted at 1.4 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively, as against 4 per cent and 2.3 per cent, respectively, in 2018, consumption of zinc registered a de-growth of 1.3 per cent as against 0.3 per cent de-growth in the last year.

“Despite muted consumption levels, markets of the three key non-ferrous metals continued to remain in deficit in this period, with shortages in fact expanding on a Y-o-Y basis, as production growth was even lower than the growth in demand,” it said.

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Aluminum tariffs lifted – Mexico-based Riisa to ramp up cross-border shipping to the U.S.

It may have gotten lost in the United States’ trade war with China and immigration battle with Mexico, but President Donald Trump’s steep tariffs on all imported steel and aluminum were lifted on May 17.

With the change in the Trump Administration’s policy, Canada and Mexico received a reprieve on steel and aluminum coming from those two countries. The Trump Administration had placed a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from Canada and Mexico in March 2018 (China’s tariffs are still in place).

“The tariffs meant a big hit for everyone,” said Alejandro Ayala Quijano, foreign trade manager for Riisa, an aluminum manufacturer based in Monterrey, Mexico. “The U.S. will always be our natural market; it is the biggest market and the closest market.”

Quijano said Riisa and many companies in Monterrey are centered around the automotive manufacturing business, which uses metals, particularly aluminum. Riisa’s aluminum is also used in such products as beverage cans, which are shipped to the U.S. via trucks through Laredo.

“When the tariffs came into play, we had to think of other places to locate metal to import – like South America, Europe and countries in Asia,” Quijano said. “But it’s not the same as importing from the U.S., because then you face other challenges, like distance, other documents that you don’t usually need to file when you import from the U.S.”

Now that the 10 percent aluminum tariff has been lifted, Quijano said Riisa plans to increase exports to the United States this summer and fall. Besides its main factory and headquarters in Monterrey, Riisa also has facilities in the Mexican cities of Silao, Mazatlan, and Pachuca.

“We were lucky to get the tariffs lifted, it has been great for us,” Quijano said. “What we have to do right now is just look at the market, getting as much aluminum as possible because this is the food of our company.”

Quijano said Riisa plans to increase its aluminum import process in part by leveraging the cross-border freight marketplace from Fr8Hub, a Laredo-based digital freight company specializing in U.S.-Mexico trade.

Fr8Hub’s digital freight marketplace matches cross-border truckers, brokers and shippers throughout Mexico and the domestic United States (to and from border cities) with available carriers and drivers for their loads.

Quijano estimated that they use the Laredo port of entry up to 1,000 times a month to transport aluminum and products, but truck capacity is tight right now.

The latest FreightWaves SONAR data shows outbound tender volumes in Laredo (OTVI.LRD) increased 483 basis points, or 11.59 percent, between Tuesday, July 2 and Wednesday, July 3.

“You can see that due to the tariff changes or other changes that happen on the border, Riisa can plan ahead, sometimes they cannot, then they need to direct their team drivers from their facility in Monterrey,” said Ohad Axelrod, chief executive officer of Fr8Hub. “Then through Fr8Hub’s platform, we can provide the service that Riisa and companies like it need in order to thrive in this dynamic world.”

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Impressive growth awaits recycled metals market

‘However, unorganised flow of metals and poor scrap collection zones are anticipated to restrict the global market size in the coming years,’ analysts at Global Market Insights say. They point out that one notable issue is that most developing countries have no dedicated zones for metal recycling.

India’s automotive industry is expected to be worth more than US$ 280 billion by 2025. The country’s car production went up by 7% from 2013 to 2018 with nearly 30 million vehicles manufactured. A quarter of steel used in today’s automobiles today has been recycled and, based on its weight, a passenger car comprises approximately 65% steel and iron.

Ferrous outlook

The research found that the recycled ferrous metal market was valued at more than US$ 850 million last year. The analysts note that the overall recycling rate for steel used in construction is 98% for structural and 71% for rebar & reinforcement applications.

‘In terms of volume, recycled metal for industrial machinery constituted over 15% of the total industry share in 2018,’ the new data suggests. This is mainly due to extensive recycled metal applications in the production of machinery used across the pharmaceutical, chemical and automotive industry.

Furthermore, non-ferrous metals like copper, aluminium, lead and brass are increasingly popular in such machinery. Their excellent durability and corrosion-free nature will help make a positive impact on the overall recycled steel metal market size by 2025.

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Be part of the plastics recycling revolution

It seems that nowadays plastic waste is all around us. Sure, it can be easy to focus on all that is going wrong. But that would be a disservice to recyclers and tech providers around the world. That’s why Recycling International is dedicating the next issue to plastics recycling.

A new landscape?

Cutting-edge recycling systems are being developed to tackle the growing volume of plastics. This includes anything from rigorious washing, baling and shredding to hi-tech sorting, and more. Also gaining momentum are recycled content products.

The fact is; plastics production is one of the main industries that will drive global oil demand to 2050, so reveals the International Energy Agency (IEA). Less than 10% of the world’s oil is used to create plastic products annually. And yet, growth in this industry is strong enough to offset slower consumption of fuel in the transport sector.

Global demand for petrochemical feedstock accounted for 12 million barrels per day. IEA believes that this figure will grow to almost 18 million barrels per day in 2050.

‘Although substantial increases in recycling and efforts to curb single-use plastics take place – especially led by Europe, Japan and Korea – these efforts will be far outweighed by the sharp increase in developing economies of plastic consumption,’ IEA argues. Based on recent calculations, it reports recycling could hit around 5% of high-value chemical demand.

It is also interesting to note that fossil fuels still represent 99% of the plastics raw material base, although there is a growing interest in the use of biomass as a feedstock. In fact, the global production of bio-plastics reached 2.1 million tonnes last year.

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Ferrous prices continue to decline

Raw Material Data Aggregation Service (RMDAS) ferrous scrap pricing, as measured by mill purchases by Pittsburgh-based MSA Inc., shows scrap prices continue to decline across the country.

The RMDAS prices, released June 20, cover a buying period that extends to the third week of each month. U.S. scrap prices dropped $27 to $271 per ton in June. A three-month buying period shows receding scrap prices from $329 per ton in April to $298 in May and $271 in June. Prompt industrial composite grades also fell by $28 to $300 per ton and No. 1 heavy melting steel (HMS) declined by $33 to an average $242 per ton nationally.

Regionally, shredded scrap fell sharply in the North Midwest region, by $29 per ton, compared with a $28 per ton decline in the North Central/East and $22 per ton drop in the South. Prompt grades fell by $30 per ton in the North Central/ East and North Midwest regions and $20 per ton in the South, where prompt grades retained their highest value at $307 per ton compared with $295 in the North Midwest and $299 in the North Central/East.

In June, prices for No. 1 HMS fell between $34 and $30 per ton. Mills in the South paid an average $248 per ton compared with $247 per ton in the North Midwest and $238 per ton in the North Central/ East region.

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Three Out Of Four Aluminium Cans Recycled In The U.K. In 2018

According to Alupro, the UK’s 75-percent recycling rate is a significant improvement from the beginning of the decade, with overall aluminium beverage can recycling totaling 54 percent in 2010.

Food and beverage processors increasingly turn to aluminium as a packaging medium per Alupro, with the industry witnessing an 11-percent rise to 52 percent last year. As a result of both increased aluminium usage and increased recycling, the British Isles recycled over 100 metric tons of aluminium that began as food and beverage packaging last year alone.

Executive director of Alupro Rick Hindley noted the high sustainability of aluminium and the British public’s enthusiasm for ensuring that the metal continues to be utilized into the future.

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Where does your plastic go? Global investigation reveals America’s dirty secret

This is not the experience of Nguyễn Thị Hồng Thắm, a 60-year-old Vietnamese mother of seven, living amid piles of grimy American plastic on the outskirts of Hanoi. Outside her home, the sun beats down on a Cheetos bag; aisle markers from a Walmart store; and a plastic bag from ShopRite, a chain of supermarkets in New Jersey, bearing a message urging people to recycle it.

Tham is paid the equivalent of $6.50 a day to strip off the non-recyclable elements and sort what remains: translucent plastic in one pile, opaque in another.

A Guardian investigation has found that hundreds of thousands of tons of US plastic are being shipped every year to poorly regulated developing countries around the globe for the dirty, labor-intensive process of recycling. The consequences for public health and the environment are grim.

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Global Aluminum Systems Market worth USD 213.7 billion by 2026 | Key Players Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), Aditya Birla Management Corporation Pvt. Ltd., Emirates Global Aluminium PJSC and China Hongqiao Group Limited

The global aluminum systems market is highly fragmented and the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of aluminum systems market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, South America and Middle East & Africa.

Global Aluminum Systems Market is expected to rise from its initial estimated value of USD 134.1 billion in 2018 to an estimated value of USD 213.7 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 6% in the forecast period of 2019-2026. This rise of market value can be attributed to the rising technological advancements in the market.

Aluminum Systems market research report also directs the manufacturer about planning of advertising and sales promotion efforts and makes it more effective. This report has been prepared by considering various steps for collecting, recording and analysing market data. Aluminum Systems market report covers strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market. It also delivers list of the leading competitors and provides the insights about strategic industry analysis of the key factors influencing the Chemical and Materials industry. The Aluminum Systems market report is a professional and a detailed report focusing on primary and secondary drivers, market share, leading segments and geographical analysis.

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US aluminium production increases 42% YoY in February; secondary recovery declines 7%

According to the latest report from US Geological Survey, US domestic primary aluminium production stood at 87,000 tonnes in February 2019. The average daily production was 3,100 tonnes, up 42 per cent Year-on-Year. Primary aluminium production increased slightly from January and 54 per cent from February 2017.

Total aluminium recovered from scrap was 271,000 tonnes in February, 7 per cent lower than the revised amount in February 2018. This was down 7 per cent less than the revised amount in January and 9 per cent less than the amount in February 2017.

Of this, 152,000 tonnes of aluminium was recovered from new scrap and 119,000 tonnes was recovered from old scrap.

Primary aluminium inventories in LME-approved warehouses in the United States stood at 44,175 tonnes at the end of February. Inventories of secondary aluminium (North American Secondary Aluminium Alloy Contract) also dropped to 121,700 tonnes at the end of February.

The average U.S. market price of primary aluminium ingot increased slightly in February from that in January to $1.04 per pound.

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