EARTH (Plenary lecture)

[21101-05-01] Demand and Supply of Major Non-Ferrous Metals and Their Scraps in Korea

○Dr.Hyungkyu Park¹ (1. Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources)

Keywords:major non-ferrous metals, Korean markets, demand, amount of scraps, recycling

The Korean Institute of Resources Recycling has published a fact book on the current status of the recycling industry in Korea every five years since 1999. The status of the recycling of non-ferrous metal scrap is regularly surveyed, and the data in the fact book are updated. Among the many kinds of non-ferrous metal scrap, six common non-ferrous metals, copper, aluminum, zinc, lead, gold, and silver, were selected for this presentation. We firstly studied the supply of and demand for these six metals using data provided by the Korea Customs Service (KCS), the Korea Non-Ferrous Metal Association, and review articles from magazines or other technical reports. The demand for and production of these six non-ferrous metals and the amounts of these metal scrap generated in Korea in recent five years are reviewed here. The demand levels for electric copper, aluminum, zinc, lead, gold, and silver ingot in 2014 were 932 thousand tons, 1,490 thousand tons, 930 thousand tons, 815 thousand tons, 63 tons, and 3,149 tons, respectively. In addition, large amounts of copper and aluminum scrap were imported. The amounts of copper, aluminum, zinc, and lead scrap imported in 2014 were 298 thousand tons, 801 thousand tons, 10 tons, and 10 thousand tons, respectively. These scraps were mainly used for the production of secondary ingots. On the other hand, the amounts exported were low compared to the amounts imported. The amounts of copper, aluminum, and zinc scrap exported were 85 thousand tons, 11 thousand tons, and 3 thousand tons, respectively, whereas no lead scrap was exported.