• The new report contains a total of 45 graphs and tables, seven more than its predecessor.
• World crude steel production increased 3% last year to 1.607bn tonnes, according to worldsteel. Owing to the stronger increase in BOF (basic oxygen furnace) production in 2013, the BOF steel share of total world steel production climbed to around 71%.
• Developments in steel scrap use as a global raw material for steelmaking differed from country to country last year.
• According to our 2013 figures, steel scrap consumption declined in the EU-27 (-4.6%), Turkey (-6%) and Russia (-3.5%) but climbed in China (+2%), Japan (+3.2%) and the Republic of Korea (+0.3%). Also noticeable was the unchanged steel scrap usage in the USA. Last year, there was an increase in crude steel output in regions/countries with a high percentage of EAF (electric arc furnace) production such as the Middle East and Africa, as well as some Asian countries like India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.
• We have calculated a steel scrap usage increase in world steel production to around 580m tonnes last year (+1.8% compared with the 570m tonnes in 2012).
• Taking into account last year's 3% increase in world crude steel output, the proportion of steel scrap used in crude steel production fell from 36.6% to 36.1%.
• For last year, it is interesting to note that China used more domestically-supplied steel scrap and reduced its imports, and that the USA used more direct reduced iron as a substitute for steel scrap.
• Global annual ferrous scrap use in iron and steel foundries has amounted to between 56m and 76m tonnes in recent years.
• Global external steel scrap trade amounted to 99m tonnes last year (-9.5% compared to 2012), of which around 30% was attributable to inter-EU trade.
• Most leading steel scrap importers cut their overseas purchases in 2013, including Turkey (-12%), the Republic of Korea (-8.6%), India (-31.1%), China (-10.2%) and Taiwan (-10.1%). Despite its reduced level of buying, Turkey remained the world's foremost steel scrap importer.
• We have now developed seven flow charts covering steel scrap exports from the USA, the EU-27, Japan, Canada, Russia, Australia and South Africa. Global steel scrap export trade showed a clear downtrend last year when compared to 2012, with the following highlights:

• Despite a drop of around 13.6%, the USA remained the world's leading exporter of steel scrap on 18.495m tonnes.
• EU-27 exports fell 14.1% to 16.826m tonnes.
• Japan's steel scrap export volumes declined 5.1% to 8.15m tonnes.
• Reductions in overseas shipments of steel scrap were also recorded by Russia (-4.6% to 3.714m tonnes), Australia (-2% to 2.2m tonnes) and South Africa (-9% to 1.485m tonnes).
• In contrast, steel scrap exports from Canada increased around 6.4% to 4.521m tonnes.
• It is noticeable that all of the world's leading steel scrap exporters are major net steel scrap exporters.
• Our figures show that ferrous scrap is used as a raw material by steelworks and iron/steel foundries across the globe. It is an ecologically beneficial raw material and an international commodity subject to global market prices, thus underlining the need for a free world raw material market.

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