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According to the data from the Southeast Asian Iron and Steel Association, the amount of scrap produced locally in the seven ASEAN countries is only enough to meet half of their demand. Due to the insufficient supply of scrap steel, they need to be imported to meet.

From January to November 2020, the steel industry of the seven ASEAN countries imported a total of 6.04 million tons of scrap steel, of which 40.1% of the imports came from Japan, 18.1% from the United States, and 9.2% from Australia.

Due to tight transportation and high freight rates, the amount of scrap imported from the United States and Australia decreased by about 50% year-on-year, but imports from Japan remained stable. Importing scrap from Japan has its quality and geographic advantages.

Vietnam is the country that imports the most scrap steel from Japan among the seven ASEAN countries. Due to the early lifting of restrictions on construction activities due to COVID-19, Vietnam has effectively driven the country's demand for steel. In addition to the current steelmaking capacity, new investment projects are also being launched one after another, which requires a stable supply of scrap steel. Malaysia's imports of scrap steel are also worthy of attention.

Although the economy is still in the recovery phase, Malaysia's scrap steel imports in 2019 and 2020 will remain at the level of 1.2 million to 1.3 million tons, indicating that the demand for scrap steel in Malaysia's steel production, especially the production of semi-finished products and long products, is stable. .

It is expected that steel production in the seven ASEAN countries will resume operations in the coming months. As more new steel production capacity starts, the purchase of scrap steel will be crucial to the supply of raw materials for steel mills. It is expected that the supply of scrap steel in the region will fall short of demand in the future. It is reported that Malaysia has imposed a 15% export tariff on scrap steel.