Japan’s scrap steel imports plunged in Janaury

TOKYO (Scrap Monster): The most recent statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (MoF) suggests significant drop in scrap steel imports during the month of January this year. The imports had reported yearly decline in 2015.

The country’s scrap steel imports totaled 12,200 tons during Jan ‘16. The monthly imports witnessed sharp decline of 18.9% over the previous year. The imports had totaled 15,043 tons during January 2015. Also, the imports registered significant drop when matched with the previous month. The Jan ‘16 imports have declined by nearly 17.4% when matched with the imports during Dec ‘15. The Japanese scrap steel imports had totaled 14,800 tons during December last year. The scrap steel imports have continued to remain under 20,000 tons for over a year now.

The largest exporter of scrap steel to Japan was Korea. The imports from Korea totaled 6,400 tons, accounting for over half of the total imports by Japan during the month. The imports from Korea were down sharply by over 35% year-on-year. The second largest scrap exporter to Japan was the United States. The imports from the US registered marginal increase of 6.4% over the previous year to total 2,000 tons.

The cumulative scrap steel imports by Japan during the entire year 2015 had totaled 149,000 tons. The imports had declined heavily by nearly 58.9% over 2014. The monthly scrap steel imports by the country averaged at around 12,000 tons. The yearly imports had dropped for the first time since 2012.