Covid-19 appears to have claimed another casualty: the London Metal Exchange ring trading floor.

The price of shredded steel scrap imported jumped by almost $30 per tonne on Friday December 18 due to continued tightness in container availability and a strong international market, sources told Fastmarkets.

It has been almost one year since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak and global economies are still recovering from the fallout. Fastmarkets analyzes the effects of the pandemic on global cobalt supply and trade flows.

With just 35 days remaining until the United Kingdom withdraws from the European Union, the country’s potential departure from the EU single market could see its domestic aluminium scrap market face business-critical trade barriers that, according to market participants, would send the UK’s scrap industry hurtling backwards.

Fast-rising costs for container freight on a number of major shipping routes are causing disruption in trade flows for minerals and metals alike, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday November 12.

A radical shake-up of the European Union's waste shipment regulations could lead to a total ban or the implementation of controls on scrap metal exports from the territory, Fastmarkets understands.