Japan's scrap exports fell 5.2% in 2013

12 Feb 2014 Last updated at 00:41:01 GMT

TOKYO (Scrap Monster) : The latest data published by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (MoF) suggests a considerable fall in the scrap exports by the country during the year 2013. The exports during the year slumped when compared to those during the previous year.

Japan’s total scrap exports during 2013 amounted to 8.15 million tons, down by 5.2% over the previous year. The country’s scrap exports during 2012 had totaled 8.60 million tons.

In 2013, the main scrap importer of Japan was South Korea. The Korean scrap imports from Japan during the year totaled 4.71 million tons. However, the imports were down 3.1% when compared with a year ago. The next largest Japanese scrap export destination was China with 2.61 million tons. The scrap imports by China were down 16.5% year-on-year. In third place was Vietnam with total imports of 414,000 tons, up by 46.2% year-on-year.

For the month of December alone, Japan exported 543,000 tons of scrap. The scrap exports during the month fell by almost 40% in comparison with the exports during the same month a year ago.

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Author: Paul Ploumis