South Africa keeps scrap export restrictions in place

The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition of South Africa has issued a two-page notice extending restrictions on ferrous and red metal scrap exports that were introduced in November 2022.

The notice from Ebrahim Patel, head minister of the department, decrees that designated forms of ferrous and nonferrous scrap “may not be exported from the Republic of South Africa for a period of six months from the date of publication of this [notice].” The notice is dated June 15, 2023, meaning it will be valid until mid-December.

The portion of the notice identifying which grades will be restricted from export lists “ferrous scrap [and] remelting scrap ingots of iron or steel” and other ferrous scrap “generated in the ordinary course of business as a byproduct of a manufacturing process.”

The ban also applies to “copper waste and scrap.” The notice specifically exempts stainless steel from the ban and makes no mention of aluminum scrap.

In a news release accompanying the original November 2022 enactment, Patel identifies metal theft from transportation and communication networks as having prompted the bans.

“South Africa has an extensive network of electricity and telecom cables, rail tracks and rail cables, and municipal infrastructure such as traffic lights and drain covers,” he remarks in the November 2022 news release. “It is practically impossible to police all of this infrastructure, all of the time. The measures approved by the [national] cabinet, therefore, seek to reduce the demand for scrap metal from the lucrative global market, while simultaneously disrupting criminals’ transport and logistics networks.”

Other measures that were announced as being in progress at that time included prohibiting the use of cash in copper and scrap metal transactions and limiting scrap exports “to a defined number of ports of exit.”