n° 166 – May 2020

The effects of the Coronavirus pandemic are not fully known as yet but the Spanish and Portuguese economies have suffered badly in recent months. Spanish GDP fell 5.2% from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the first quarter of 2020 while Portugal’s GDP is expected to drop by between 3.7% and 5.7% this year.

The future remains uncertain and everybody is afraid of a second wave of infections following the gradual reopening of these economies.

Scrap supply is lower than normal whereas demand for non-ferrous scrap has been good from Asia as well as from Europe. Conditions for copper and brass grades have shown particular improvement. The severe slowdown within the automotive industries has affected demand for secondary aluminium in Europe; there was also a recent fall in secondary aluminium scrap prices.