China's used metal market crisis
Updated on 06 December 2008
Where there is muck there is brass, or there was till China's massive used metal market was credit crunched; now things are turning violent.
One man's scrap is another man's gold-dust, at least in China, home to much of the recycled material in our electronic goods.
But the global credit crisis means many buyers are failing to pay up, driving some in the industry to take the law into their own hands.
With kidnapping now an extreme form of negotiating tactic, many scrap dealers now fear for their safety.
Our Asia correspondent Nick Paton Walsh spoke to one British trader who says he was held for three days, while Chinese businessmen demanded £200,000 from his employers over a deal that went wrong.
