Italy’s aluminium scrap imports to rise 8% in 2018; Germany to be the top supplier

Italy is the world’s largest user of aluminium after the USA, Japan, People’s Republic of China and Germany. The aluminium market is concentrated almost exclusively in the north of the country. The large part of aluminium is used by extrusion plants and foundries to supply to the automobile industry. Together with Germany and France, Italy is one of the largest producers of foundry products.

According to the data gathered and processed by Assomet and Centroal, 2017 was a year marked by growth for the Italian aluminium industry. The overall consumption of light metal in all its forms was beyond 2.1 million tonnes. This trend of the use of aluminium in Italy confirms its second position in Europe behind Germany. So, given this increasingly strong demand of the industry, Italy imports a significant amount of aluminium scrap from various parts of the world.

The international export-import data found that Italy’s aluminium scrap imports remained steady over the past two years with consistent rises year-over-year. This year is expected to show no exception either. Per the data, Italy is likely to secure 587,798 tonnes in total at the end of 2018, up 8 per cent from 544,857 tonnes in 2017 and 12 per cent from 526,592 tonnes in 2016. Italy’s aluminium scrap import growth in 2017 was at 3.4 per cent from a year earlier.

Value-wise, Italy’s aluminium scrap imports saw a growth as well. In 2016, the cost of Italy’s scrap imports was at US$ 525 million, which further grew in 2017 by 12 per cent to US$ 590 million. This year is expected to extend the growth to US$ 626 million, up 19 per cent from 2016 and 6 per cent from 2017.

The global data also anticipates Germany to be the top exporter of aluminium scrap to Italy this year, supplying 167,854 tonnes in total, followed by France 111,656 tonnes and Switzerland 53,931 tonnes.