The Australian Steel Institute (ASI) again stressed that local scrap processing is an important environmental and economic opportunity for Australia, so it call for a ban imposed on the exports of unprocessed ferrous scrap metal.

Mark Cain, Chief Executive of ASI, said Australian steel mills were importing processed ferrous scrap to meet the growing steel demand, while they could actually use their own materials.

The export ban would keep an extra 800,000 tons of processed scrap for the domestic market, which could decrease the steel industry’s greenhouse gas emissions, and it would be also beneficial to reduce the damage to the offshore environment caused by unprocessed scrap waste landfill.