The global copper scrap market is currently in a critical period of profound restructuring of the supply landscape. Invoiced copper scrap, serving as a crucial supplement to the smelting and processing stages, continues to have its supply chain resilience tested. Against this backdrop, Japan and South Korea, leveraging their mature recycling systems and efficient trade networks, have firmly established themselves as the core pricing benchmarks and circulation hubs for copper scrap in Asia.
For a long time, the inventory levels at yards and the pace of production-to-sales turnover in the Japan and South Korea markets have lacked a systematic, high-frequency, and visualized monitoring indicator system. This has not only amplified the decision-making blind spots for global traders and Chinese importers, but also, to some extent, intensified the expected fluctuations in procurement costs.
To facilitate stakeholders across the global industry chain in tracking the supply tightness of Asian copper scrap, SMM plans to officially launch the Japan and South Korea Copper Scrap Inventory Monitoring Data to the global market on August 21, 2026. This data will precisely cover major leading yards and downstream entities in Japan and South Korea, tracking the physical inventory changes of copper scrap in the region on a weekly high-frequency basis. It will intuitively present the real-time supply tightness of overseas sources in Asia, helping market participants in China and overseas to assess the supply dynamics of Asian copper scrap, and providing an independent and objective reference for global copper scrap trading, import procurement, and strategic decision-making.
Notice is hereby given.
We welcome more enterprises in the industry chain to participate in and support SMM in better serving the copper scrap industry chain.
For any inquiries, please contact:
SMM Copper Research Team, Ouyang Yichang and Huang Yutong
Tel: +6011-35798397, +86-021-20707843
Email: awyong.yicheong@metal.com, huangyutong@smm.cn