The Bureau of International Recycling is set for its spring meeting in Beijing. In its recent BIR World Mirror report on Nonferrous Markets, Marc Natan, president of the Non-Ferrous Metal Division, has the following observations:
Demand from China - and also India - has been instrumental in helping secondary raw materials to throw off their status as being somehow inferior to primary metals. This demand has helped to earn respect for secondary raw materials and has allowed them to achieve the values merited by their metal content.
Europe’s and America’s perception of Asia - and vice versa - has undergone a spectacular change as Asian countries pursue frantic economic growth while the European Union and the USA go through a crisis of identity and confidence. At the end of the 19th century, Europeans considered Asia as a source of artistic inspiration or as a potential outlet for imperialistic ambitions. Asians considered Europeans as a model of modern lifestyle or an incarnation of decadence, and the Americas a s new world to be discovered. The economic miracle which took place in Japan - and subsequently South Korea and Taiwan - changed the world’s opinion of at least part of the Asian continent. It suddenly became the place for technological progress.
China and India are now confirming this trend and, in so doing, are opening up huge, new markets for metals across all sectors of industry, including automotive, transportation and construction. These countries should inspire respect in the context of healthy competition and should not provoke simply fear.
The non-Asian world has a duty to find an appropriate response to this challenge. And it is quite able to do so, not only by virtue of its historical weight, but also through the quality of its economic leaders who are able to demonstrate realism in adapting to this extraordinary economic revolution.
Globalization will have a lasting impact on primary and secondary raw materials as regards environmental rules and the protection of nature and people’s health. A major, new challenge lies ahead for the politicians and the economic decisionmakers: to help with the industrialization of Africa so that the continent completes the loop of sustainable development.
Members of the BIR can read the market outlooks from representatives from throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and the Middle East by going to the BIR’s Web site at www.bir.org <http://www.bir.org>.