Japanese steel exports and imports dropped in Jan '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 January this year. This is in comparison with the previous month.

The country’s exports of steel products have declined by 10.2% in Jan ’15 to 3.414 million tons when compared with the previous month. However, when compared with the same month a year before, the Jan ’15 steel exports by the country increased by 4.2%. The revenue generated by steel products exports by the country totaled ¥336.40 billion, nearly 10% higher when compared with the previous year.

The Japanese steel exports to Asian region totaled 2.612 million tons, accounting for more than three-fourth of the total exports by the country during Jan ‘15. The exports to Asian countries increased marginally by 0.8% over the year. However, the steel products export to China dropped sharply by 12% year-on-year during the month.

The Japanese steel imports during Jan ‘15 totaled 713,000 tons. The imports were down 2.3% when compared with the previous month and were down further by 18.8% from same month the previous year.

The imports from Asia totaled 617,000 tons, accounting for 86% of the imports by Japan. The imports from Asian countries have dropped by over 17% during the month when compared with the previous year. The imports from China increased slightly by 0.6% to 178,000 tons. The imports from USA surged higher by 40% over the year to 1,000 tons.