Scrap Imports by Japan Hit Lowest Level in 3 Years

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The latest trade statistics published by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (MoF) suggests notable decline in scrap imports by the country in November 2018. The imports totaled 502,523 tons, significantly down by 27% from the corresponding month a year before. Over the prior month, the imports were down by 13.6%. The monthly imports hit the lowest level in more than three years.

The largest scrap supplier to Japan in Nov ’18 was South Korea. The imports from that country totaled 258,940 tons, down by 17.2% over the previous year. South Korea accounted for nearly 52% of the total Japanese scrap imports. Vietnam supplied 109,657 tons, again registering year-on-year decline in volumes by 25.4%. The other primary sources of import were China (93,956 tons) and Taiwan (30,420 tons).

The cumulative scrap imports by the country totaled 6.718 million tons during the initial eleven months of the previous year. The imports declined sharply by nearly 10% when compared with the imports of 7.450 million tons in Jan-Nov ’17.

The imports from South Korea totaled 3.719 million tons in Jan-Nov ‘18, accounting for 55.4% share of total imports by Japan. The South Korean supplies improved marginally by almost 2% from the previous year. The other key scrap suppliers were Vietnam (1.391 million tons), China (936,846 tons) and Taiwan (428,946 tons). The combined imports from the above four countries accounted for nearly 90% of the Japanese imports.