Economic report: Yemen is the fourth largest supplier of iron scrap to India
English - Sunday 23 July 2023 الساعة 10:17 am
Sana'a, NewsYemen, exclusive:
According to an Indian economic report on Friday, Yemen ranks fourth among countries that supply scrap iron to India, after Britain, America and the UAE.
According to the report, which was based on Indian customs data, Yemen exported 47,027 tons of iron scrap to India in May 2023, an increase of 125.6% over the year 2022, when the exported quantity reached 20,845 tons.
He added that the monthly average of ferrous scrap imports from Yemen to India during the 16 months preceding last May amounted to 16,462 tons, noting that earlier in the same month, the Nava Sheva port in India issued a standard operating procedure for container inspection and verification under its risk management system, with a special focus on goods coming from Pakistan, Yemen and Iran.
The report, published by the "Argomedia" website, did not clarify whether the export of iron scrap from Yemen was carried out through private companies or by government agencies, and the Indian customs figures did not include financial data for these operations. However, iron scrap prices range between 355-380 dollars / ton, according to the website of the Arab Iron and Steel Union.
The (oec) website, which monitors global trade in gold, indicated in one of its reports last year that Yemen exported $114 million worth of gold during the year 2020 to Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland and Hong Kong.
In light of the nine-year war with the Houthi militia, the Yemeni government is suffering from a stifling economic crisis, and it has been escalating since October 2022, when the Houthis targeted ports and oil export facilities in Hadramout and Shabwa with missile and drone strikes. The Houthi militia is still threatening to bomb oil facilities if the government resumes oil exports.
The Houthi militia controls the port of Hodeidah and forced the private sector operating in its areas of control to divert the import of commercial goods from the port of Aden to the port of Hodeidah, after the legitimate government allowed the restrictions imposed on the port to be lifted under the armistice agreement in April 2022.
The government had estimated the total resources of the state's general budget for the past fiscal year 2022 at 3 trillion and 243 billion riyals, while the total public uses were estimated at 3 trillion and 645 billion riyals, with a deficit of 401 billion riyals.
Yemen relies on crude oil exports to finance 70% of the state's general budget spending, as the country's oil production before the war ranged between 150 and 200 thousand barrels per day. Since 2015, production has fallen to less than 100,000 barrels per day.
Yemen's revenues from crude oil exports recorded a remarkable increase in 2021, the first of its kind in years, amounting to $1.418 billion, compared to approximately $710.5 million in 2020, according to a report issued by the Central Bank of Yemen.
The liberated areas suffer from a continuous deterioration in basic services, especially electricity and health, in addition to the continuous collapse of the national currency against other currencies, while the areas under the control of the Houthi militia suffer from an almost complete absence of government services in light of the emergence of private companies to provide citizens with public services in exchange for exorbitant prices that exceed their financial capabilities.
With the interruption of the payment of salaries to government employees and the high rate of unemployment and poverty, thousands of Yemeni citizens resort to collecting iron scrap and selling it to face the ever-increasing burdens of living. Scrap collectors sell the proceeds of what they collect to merchants who specialize in this type of business at low prices, not exceeding 80 riyals per kilo. Among the sources of obtaining iron scrap are battle remnants of unexploded weapons or fragments of explosive weapons, as well as damaged military vehicles and vehicles that are subject to total destruction in traffic accidents, in addition to other sources.
