Japan’s Steel Exports Plunged 17% in July

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster):  The Japanese Ministry of Finance (MoF) has released the preliminary data of steel trade by the country during the month of July this year. According to MoF data, the exports of steel products dropped sharply b more than 17% during the month, when compared with the previous year. On the other hand, imports surged higher by over 21% during the month.

The preliminary steel trade data suggests that Japan exported 2.931 million tons of steel products during the month. The exports registered notable decline of 17.4% when compared with the same month a year before. Month-on-month, the exports were down by 8.7%. The monthly exports have dropped below 3 million tons for the first time since November 2012. The value of steel exports surged higher by 18.1% over the previous year on the back of high commodity prices. The exports amounted to Yen 258.9 billion during July this year, MoF data said.

The Japanese exports to Asian region were up by almost 10% over the previous year. The shipment to the region totaled 2.405 million tons, accounting for nearly 82% of the total monthly exports. Out of this, exports to China totaled 404,000 tons. A comparison of MoF data indicates that shipments to China during July this year declined sharply by 19.4% over the year. Month-on-month, Chinese imports of steel products from Japan declined by 16.2%. The exports to Korea too declined sharply by 24% year-on-year to total 417,000 tons.

The steel product exports by Japan to ASEAN region totaled 1.019 million tons, falling by nearly 6% from the previous month. The exports to the Middle East region plunged heavily by 70% to 55,000 tons. The US imports of Japanese steel products declined by 46% to 149,000 tons. The country’s overseas shipments to Russia and the EU region were down by 73% and 34% respectively.

The Japanese steel imports during July this year totaled 703,000 tons. This is the fifth consecutive month that the imports have stayed above 700,000 levels. When compared with the imports during the previous month, the July ’17 imports were down by 9.1%. However, when matched with the previous year, the imports climbed higher significantly by more than 21%.

The major source of import was the Asian region. The imports from Asia totaled 617,000 tons, accounting for nearly 88% share of total Japanese imports. The imports from the region soared by 27% from the previous year. The major exporters of steel products to Japan in July were Korea (341,000 tons), China (149,000 tons) and Taiwan (24,000 tons).