Japanese stainless steel imports fall in May

By Paul Ploumis 06 Jul 2015 Last updated at 04:16:26 GMT

TOKYO (Scrap Monster): According to latest data released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (MoF), the country’s stainless steel imports declined considerably during the month of May this year. The average price of imported stainless steel too fell during the month.

Japan’s total stainless steel product imports during May ‘15 totaled 13,676 tons, down 5.7% from the imports during the same month a year ago. The monthly imports of stainless steel products by the country had totaled 14,503 tons during May last year. The average import price of stainless steel stood at $2,953.35 per ton during the month, down by nearly 5% when compared with the year before.

The largest export source of imports of stainless steel products by Japan was South Korea. The imports from South Korea totaled 9,952 tons. The imports from South Korea to Japan dropped marginally by 3% when compared with the exports during April ‘15. In second place was Taiwan with total Japanese imports of 1,913 tons. The stainless steel imports from Taiwan plunged by 12.4% over the previous month. The stainless steel imports from China saw slight improvement of 0.8% month-on-month to total 878 tons.

The MoF data also indicates that the country’s cumulative stainless steel imports totaled 69,307 tons during the initial five-month period from January to May this year. The largest supplier of stainless steel products to Japan during this period was South Korea. The imports from the country totaled 49,912 tons, followed by Taiwan (9,298 tons) and China (4,667 tons).

In addition, the country also imported 66,859 tons of special steel during the month, growing higher by 14.3% when compared with the previous month.