China-Africa: Chinese slowdown hurts metal dealers
Friday, November 28th, 2008| Written by Dominique Patton | |
China’s recent building boom and rapid growth of its manufacturing sector had created a huge market for recycled metals.
November 28, 2008: The sales of recyclable metals to China have collapsed, threatening the livelihoods of scrap dealers and Kenya’s largest source of income from China.The abrupt change has hit Kenyan scrap exporters hard. All recycled copper had been going to China. “The demand was quite high. They would take whatever we could offer them,” said Mr David Murai, the secretary general of the Kenya Iron and Scrap Metal Association (Kisma). “But two months ago it stopped. We don’t know what is happening.” China’s recent building boom and rapid growth of its manufacturing sector had created a huge market for recycled metals, with exporters from around the world building profitable businesses on the back of Chinese demand. But within weeks of the Olympic Games ending, China’s scrap metal market has all but dried up as the global slowdown hits Chinese factories and the pace of domestic construction ebbs. Revenues from scrap metal exports have outweighed that from other Kenyan products, including tea and coffee, marketed in China over the last few years (bdafrica) |