Japan scrap consumption declined to lower levels in Dec '14

Author: Paul Ploumis
18 Mar 2015 Last updated at 02:37:29 GMT

TOKYO (Scrap Monster): According to latest statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (MoF), the scrap consumption by the country’s steel sector has declined considerably during the month of December last year.

The scrap consumption by the country’s steel industry totaled 2.885 million tons in Dec ’14. This is 8.1% lower than the total scrap consumed during the same month a year ago. The scrap consumption during Dec ’13 had totaled 3.140 million tons.

The scrap purchases by Japanese steel mills during the month totaled 2.107 million tons, down 14.8% year-on-year. Among them, 1.979 million tons were carbon scraps, accounting for almost 94% of the total scrap purchases. The carbon scrap purchases were down 15.3% over the previous year. The other major scrap purchases include alloy scraps (84,000 tons, down 9.4%) and pig iron scrap (43,000 tons, down 0.9%).

Meantime, the average price of Japanese H2 scrap declined further during the second week of March this year. This is the twelfth straight week of decline for H2 scrap average prices in the country.