China’s tariffs crush takes its toll on British scrap metal giant
BRITAIN’S biggest scrap metal recycler, the family-owned giant EMR, has said sales to China are on course to halve this year due to tariffs and rising global protectionism.
The firm, which boasts revenues of £3.3 billion, said exports to the metalconsuming giant will be £200 million lower due to trade disruptions.
Last year it sold £400 million worth of metals to China. The superpower has been the global driver of sales in copper and aluminium.
But it has imposed a 25% tariff on US scrap, widely seen as retaliation for the US government tariffs, which has disrupted the scrap metal industry.
Changes to environmental procedures in China restricting the import of certain “non-ferrous” metals such as aluminium and copper last year have also dented the appetite for imports.
EMR, which recycles around 10 million tonnes of metal a year from old cars and fridges, has dozens of joint ventures in the US employing around 1200 people, and relies heavily on exports.
Although sales to China are a small part of total turnover it warned in September that protectionist measures risked negatively affecting free commodity trading. Chief executive Chris Sheppard, a member of the firm’s founding family, said the issues had proved a difficulty.
He said: “A huge amount of energy has been expended this year managing the fall-out of global political decisions on business, finding new customers to redirect our products to, and changing our products to fit new markets.
“This could have been far more productively spent continuing to build a stronger business.”
EMR was founded in 1994 and the Sheppard family is worth an estimated £490 million, according to the Sunday Times Rich list. It employs 4000 people in 150 sites around the world.