Japanese steel exports and imports dropped in Apr '15

TOKYO (Scrap Monster): The preliminary statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (MoF) indicates that steel imports and exports by Japan dropped during the month of April this year. This is in comparison with the previous month.

The country’s exports of steel products have declined by 7.5% in Apr ’15 to 3.575 million tons when compared with the previous month. However, when compared with the same month a year before, the Apr ’15 steel exports by the country increased by 11.7%. The revenue generated by steel products exports by the country totaled ¥ 322.20 billion, nearly 5.3% higher when compared with same month the previous year.

The Japanese steel exports to Asian region totaled 2.769 million tons, accounting for more than three-fourth of the total exports by the country during Apr ‘15. The exports to Asian countries increased by 5.9% over the year. However, the steel products export to China dropped by 1.5% year-on-year during the month to 502,000 tons.

The Japanese steel exports to the Middle East region during April this year totaled 147,000 tons, surging higher by 94.4% over the previous year. The other major export destinations were Russia (1,000 tons, down 70.4%), USA (188,000 tons, up 46.9%) and EU (23,000 tons, up 17.9%).

The Japanese steel imports during Apr ‘15 totaled 625,000 tons. The imports were down 2.7% when compared with the previous month and were down further by 17.9% from same month the previous year.

The imports from Asia totaled 527,000 tons, accounting for 84% of the imports by Japan. The imports from Asian countries have dropped by over 18.4% during the month when compared with the previous year. The imports from China plunged by 9.8% to 133,000 tons. The imports from Russia were down 28.4% over the year to 14,000 tons.