Paper favored in China’s 10th batch of import quotas

Friday, July 24, the Solid Waste & Chemicals Management Centre of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China published the 10th batch of waste import quotas for 2020 as reported by the Bureau of International Recycling, Brussels. The original list is In Chinese but can be translated via web browser.

According to the Solid Waste and Chemical Management Centre, this most recent batch allows 10,110 metric tons of copper scrap, 1,110 metric tons of aluminum scrap, 3,970 metric tons of steel scrap and 56,650 metric tons of paper scrap to enter China.

Nine Dragons Paper Co. Ltd. was approved to import 35,420 metric tons of recovered paper in total, while Jiangmen Xinghui Paper Co. Ltd. was permitted 15,980 metric tons of recovered paper imports.

Twenty-three of the 40 permits issued were for the import of copper scrap, meaning the average permitted amount was 439.6 metric tons. Among the companies issued copper scrap permits were Taizhou Qihetiandi Metal Co. Ltd. at 1,970 metric tons and Anhui Chujiang Technology New Material Co. Ltd.,at 1,630 metric tons.

The recently announced import quotas are significantly smaller than the last batch the country issued July 6. Under those quotas, importers were permitted to bring in more than 175,000 metric tons of copper scrap, which was a significant increase from the 1,570 metric tons included in the eighth batch, released in mid-June. The ninth batch also permitted the import of more than 1.1 million metric tons of scrap paper and board. That also is in sharp contrast from the mid-June batch, which did not approve a single inbound shipment of recovered fiber.

According to Shanghai Metals Market (SMM), the ninth batch granted the most scrap metal import quotas since April, which helped to address concerns about a shortage of supply after the new system for importing high-quality scrap material failed to be implemented as scheduled at the start of July.