Local scrap metal dealers remain hopeful that their efforts to save the industry from extinction will bear some fruit when the government makes its now overdue latest pronouncement on whether or not there are sufficient safeguards in place to remove a ban on exports, which has been in place since April last year.
However, the portents, at least for the immediate future, appear far from appealing.
Since 2007 when the country’s Old Metal Dealers’ Act was amended to give government control of the industry and to take legal action against delinquents in the trade, persistent official pressure has been applied to curb what had become the worsening problem of