Indonesia is expected to issue further guidelines for the implementation of new scrap import regulations in the coming month, less than a week after lifting a temporary moratorium on all scrap imports.
The government agency responsible for overseeing the implementation, including pre-shipment inspections, resumed inspections early last week after temporarily halting all inspections on 22 November.
Despite the resumption of inspections and imports, sources familiar with the matter said that the government is still working on ways to implement all of the mechanisms needed for the new import policy, which establishes provisions on the import of hazardous and toxic materials as industrial raw materials.
Scrap items under the regulation are classified into separate groups, with various scrap metal items like ferrous, aluminum and copper scrap categorized as waste and subject to comply with the new import regulations.
As a result, the government is expected to release further guidelines and details pertaining to the implementation of the new policy to provide further transparency.
US trade group Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) told Argus that it confirmed the resumption of imports with government officials but noted that details regarding the specifics of the new policy are still unknown.
As China has implemented stricter import restrictions and material bans on certain scrap items, countries throughout Asia have had to adopt stricter import standards and new regulations as well in order to safeguard becoming a dumping ground of lower quality material. The new Indonesian regulations in part will help the nation better monitor and control shipments before the material is on the water through stricter pre-shipment inspections.
Some scrap suppliers have resumed scrap shipments into the country as early as last week, while others have taken to the sidelines until there is more clarity on the new standards.
The government agency overseeing inspections is believed to be inspecting scrap at a standard of quality of a 0.5pc waste threshold.
ISRI noted that the threshold standard could increase temporarily to 2pc in the expected issuance of new guidelines to allow for a grace period to ease the transition to tighter requirements. The threshold would be slowly scaled back to 0.5pc over an unknown period.
In 2018, Indonesia imported a total of 2.5mn metric tonnes of ferrous scrap, 143,300t of aluminum scrap and 14,400t of copper scrap from around the world, according to Global Trade Tracker data.
By Brad MacAulay
