Scrap consumption levels see further slide during April 2015

By  Paul Ploumis 15 Jul 2015  Last updated at  03:30:11 GMT

TOKYO (Scrap Monster): The scrap consumption levels by Japanese steel industry declined further during the month of April this year. The scrap consumption levels had declined during the two months prior to this.

According to latest statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (MoF), the country’s steel industry purchased 2.06 million tons of scrap during the month, down by 12.3% year-on-year. The scrap purchases had totaled 2.349 million tons during April last year. When compared with previous month levels of 2.07 million tons, the scrap consumption has dropped slightly by 0.5% during April ’15.

Out of the 2.06 million tons, carbon steel scraps totaled 1.926 million tons, accounting for nearly 93.5% of the total scrap purchase by the sector. The carbon steel scrap purchase was down by 12.6% when compared with the total purchases of 2.204 million tons during the same month a year ago. In second place was alloy scrap, where purchases totaled 98,000 tons. The alloy scraps purchases too declined by nearly 5.4% over the previous year. The pig iron scraps purchases totaled 42,000 tons during Apr ’15. The purchases of pig iron scraps tumbled nearly 15.7% when compared with April last year.

As per MoF data, scrap consumption by the country’s steel industry totaled 2.761 million tons during April. The scrap consumption witnessed a decline of 11.8% over the year. Scrap consumption by Japanese steel industry had totaled 3.130 million tons in April last year.