Japanese HR plate and sheet shipments down nearly 10% in June ‘14

TOKYO (Scrap Monster): The shipment of hot rolled (HR) plates and sheets declined during the month of June this year, as per latest statistics published by the Japan Iron and Steel Federation (JISF).

According to JISF data, the country’s shipments of HR plates and sheets totaled 796,581 tons during the month. The June ’14 shipments were down by 10.22% when compared with the shipments of 887,258 tons during a month ago. Year-on-year, the HR plates and sheets shipments were down 7.11%. The shipments had totaled 857,553 tons during June last year.

Out of the above, 629,300 tons were shipped to domestic markets, constituting 79% share of the total shipments made by the country during June ’14. The remaining 21% were shipped to export markets.

The data released by JISF also indicated that the shipment of hot rolled strip totaled 1.49 million tons during June ’14. The shipments were up 10.15% when compared with those during the corresponding month last year. Also, the July ’14 strip shipments were higher by nearly 3% over the previous month.

The country’s HR strip output during June ’14 was 1.41 million tons, down 3.57% over the previous month and down by nearly 2% year-on-year.