Japanese HRC exports declined in January: MoF

TOKYO (Scrap Monster): According to statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (MoF), the country’s exports of Hot Rolled Coils (HRC) declined sharply during the month of January this year.

MoF data indicates that HRC exports by the country totaled 973,573 tons during the month. This is 12.1% lesser when compared with the exports during the previous month. The exports during December 2014 had totaled 1.11 million tons.

The HRC export prices during January 2015 averaged at $533.60 per ton FOB. The average prices fell by 1.1% over the previous month. The HRC export prices had averaged at $539.53 during December last year.

The largest export destination of Japanese HRC was South Korea. The exports to South Korea totaled 209,449 tons, 2.9% higher when compared with the previous month. The exports of Japanese HRC to South Korea had totaled 203,546 tons during the month of Dec ’14. The second largest importer of Japanese HRC was China. The exports to China totaled 44,593 tons. The exports to China dropped significantly by 18.8% over the previous month.