BIR World Recycling Convention 2025: Shifting trade policies challenge nonferrous recyclers

Market volatility related to shifting trade policies is expected to continue.

four men are seated on the diaz while one speaks behind a podium
Adam Shaffer of ReMA speaking during the BIR Non-Ferrous Metals Division meeting
Photo courtesy of the Bureau of International Recycling

Shifting trade policies were among the challenges facing the nonferrous recycling sector that were discussed during the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) Non-Ferrous Metals Division meeting during the BIR World Recycling Convention & Exhibition in Valencia, Spain.

Adam Shaffer, vice president of international trade and global affairs at the Recycled Materials Association (ReMA), Washington, highlighted the concern surrounding the 25 percent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada into the U.S.

“Around 60 percent of U.S. imports of recycled materials do come from Canada and Mexico, so this causes a significant level of shock within the U.S.,” Shaffer said. A “relief valve,” he added, was the exemption for goods collected within the region.

Regarding potential retaliatory measures by other governments, “one of the biggest concerns we have as an industry in the U.S. is copper,” he continued, not least because of the volume of recycled copper the U.S. exports to China.

Philippe Chalmin, professor of economic history at Paris-Dauphine University and founding chairman of the CyclOpe commodity research institute, suggested in his guest presentation that the influence of geopolitics on nonferrous markets was, in many ways, “business as usual.”

Over the years, metals had attracted wide-ranging attention from governments through, for example, taxes, mining agreements, embargoes and quotas, he pointed out. Having hailed copper as “the strategic metal of the 21st century” because of its pivotal role in the energy transition, Chalmin identified gold as the metal to have reacted most notably to U.S. tariffs in that its price has soared well above $3,000 per ounce.

While an industrial metal for some, in many other ways, gold was “just an index of world happiness and, unfortunately here, of world unhappiness,” he added.

During a question-and-answer session co-moderated by Rick Dobkin of Shapiro Metals in St. Louis and Anirudha Agrawal of Manaksia Aluminium in India, ReMA’s Shaffer predicted the markets would continue to experience “a little bit more of this wild ride” given the pace of developments in the U.S. and the uncertainty surrounding what would come next from the Trump administration. At the same time, he added, other governments might see this as an opportunity to form new alliances and trading partnerships.

“Volatility is part of our business,” said Marc Nathan, who received the inaugural Non-Ferrous Legend award during the meeting. During such times, he added, it was particularly important to take care in managing businesses, particularly with long-term investments.

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