According to a new study, “EU Steel supply chain: Characterisation & use of EU steel scrap in relation to global trade dimensions“, the European Union has become the world’s largest exporter of steel scrap, holding a market share of 30%. In 2024, around 16.2 million tonnes of scrap were exported out of the EU, the analysts found.

The report clearly states that there is no potential scrap shortage in the European Union. Despite recurring political claims of scarcity, the data show the opposite: the EU exports millions of tonnes annually, simply because domestic demand is insufficient.

There are several reasons for this significant level of export. The most important one: there are too few consumers of scrap among the 27 Member States.

A large part of crude steel in the EU is still produced via the CO₂-intensive primary steel route, which only allows for a very limited share of scrap in downstream converters. As a result, demand for scrap remains low.

Another factor is the limited quality of EU scrap. So-called Q3 and Q4 grades, conventional post-consumer and low-quality scrap, account for around 72% of all scrap generated in the Union.

This means that most of the recycled material is not suitable for primary steel producers, who reject it for quality reasons. Producers of automotive steel, for example, cannot use such material because of its high copper content.

This is also reflected in trade data: only 4% of exports consist of high-quality pre-consumer scrap, while the majority is made up of lower-grade scrap.