World War I scrap and interwar metal markets

How much did World War I oversaturate the interwar scrap market, and who was hurt most?

The war left abundant scrap, benefiting scrap-dependent economies and disadvantaging producers of newly smelted metal.

World War I left large quantities of recoverable metal in circulation during the interwar years. That surplus favored economies and industries that depended on scrap because their preferred input remained plentiful. It disadvantaged producers of newly smelted metal, whose output had to compete with recycled wartime material. The answer remains qualitative: the panel does not estimate the tonnage or price effect and does not identify one country as the principal loser.