By Anil Mathews (ScrapMonster Author)

November 03, 2015 02:19:21 AM

The Japanese steel scrap imports declined by nearly 17% month-on-month during September this year. The cumulative imports during initial nine months of the year fell sharply by over 65% year-on-year.Japanese Ministry releases steel scrap import data for September

TOKYO (Scrap Monster): According to latest statistics released by Japan’s Ministry of Finance (MoF), the country’s imports of steel scrap dropped further during the month of September this year.

The imports during the month declined sharply by nearly 16.6% when compared with the previous month. The steel scrap imports by Japan totaled 11,400 tons in September. Japan had imported 13,700 tons of steel scrap during the month of August this year. Upon comparison with the import during the same month a year before, the Japanese steel scrap imports during September this year were down by nearly 29.1%. The country had imported 16,100 tons of steel scrap during September 2014.

During the month of September, the largest exporter of steel scrap to Japan was South Korea. The exports from South Korea totaled 7,500 tons. The Japanese imports from South Korea dropped sharply by 21% when compared with the imports of 9,500 tons during Sep ‘15. The imports from Korea accounted for nearly 66% of the total steel scrap imports by Japan during the month.

The country’s steel scrap exports during the initial nine-month period of the year totaled 113,000 tons. The cumulative imports dropped heavily by 65.4% year-on-year during this period. The steel scrap imports by Japan during January to September last year had totaled 327,000 tons.

The largest exporter of steel scrap to Japan during the initial nine-month period of the year was South Korea. The exports from South Korea totaled 74,000 tons. The Japanese imports from South Korea increased by nearly 2.5% when compared with the imports during the corresponding period a year before. In second place was the US with total exports of 13,000 tons. The steel scrap exports from the US to Japan dropped sharply by 88.6% year-on-year.

The country’s monthly imports of steel scraps averaged at 12,500 tons. The imports are likely to cross 150,000 tons during the entire year 2015.