Price and volume totals for the exports of most materials continue to lag levels from a year ago.
In May, the most recent month for which figures are available, scrap plastics exports totaled 417.46 million pounds, an increase of 3.9 percent from April 2016 export levels.
When matched against May 2015 levels, however, the volume of plastic scrap exports in the month was down by 15.7 percent. This follows a year-over-year lower-volume trend that has been seen through much of 2016 for scrap plastics.
The weighted price of recovered plastic exports in May 2016 was 16.3 cents per pound, down 2.7 percent from its April standing. That figure was down 11.3 percent from the price level in May 2015, when scrap plastic exports were garnering 18.4 cents per pound.
With 1.94 billion pounds of scrap plastics exported through the first five months of 2016, the year-to-date (YTD) volume was down 10.0 percent from the YTD figure this time last year. At 16.9 cents per pound, the average price through May 2016 was down by 8.9 percent from its 2015 YTD standing.
As for other exported materials, recovered paper exports were up slightly through the first five months of 2016, continuing another trend that’s played out through the beginning of this year. Through May, 6.35 million metric tons were exported, a 1.2 percent increase when compared with May 2015 YTD levels. At $151 per metric ton, however, the weighted average price of exported recovered paper through May was down YTD by 3.6 percent.
The 5.73 million metric tons of ferrous scrap exported through May 2016 amounted to a 15.9 percent YTD decrease. At $333 per metric ton, the weighted average price of exported ferrous scrap was down 18.7 percent from May 2015 YTD levels.
Finally, the 1.19 billion pounds of aluminum scrap exported in 2016 through May amounted to a 14.3 percent decrease compared with the May 2015 YTD figure. At 63 cents per pound, the average price of exported aluminum scrap through May 2016 was down by 16.1 percent compared with last year’s total through May.
