Author: Paul Ploumis25 Jun 2014 Last updated at 05:51:57 GMT

SEOUL (Scrap Monster) : As per the most recent data, the scrap imports by Korea during the month of May this year declined sharply over the previous month. Also, the scrap imports by the country witnessed huge decline when compared with the imports during the same month last year.

The country’s total scrap imports during May this year amounted to 609,000 tons. The imports dropped by 23.8% year on year and 24% from the previous month.

During April, Japan was the largest scrap exporter to Korea. The scrap imports from Japan totaled 331,000 tons, accounting for more than 50% of the country’s total scrap imports. However, the scrap imports from Japan fell by 22.6% year-on-year. The second largest exporter of scrap to Korea was Russia. The scrap imports by the country from Russia totaled 113,000, rising by 8.2% over the year. In third place was the US with 53,000 tons, down 40.3% over the year.

The cumulative scrap imports by Korea during the initial five-month period during the year totaled 3.702 million tons, 9.6% lesser when compared with the imports during the corresponding five-month period in 2013.

The Korean scrap imports have remained weak so far this year, very much in line with the declining imports seen in 2013.