By Anil Mathews (ScrapMonster Author)

April 01, 2016 03:31:46 AM

TOKYO (Scrap Monster): The steel scrap exports by Japan during the month of February continued to increase. This is the fifth straight month that the country’s steel scrap exports have registered month-on-month increase. According to latest statistics released by the country’s Ministry of finance (MoF), Japan’s steel scrap exports totaled 743,000 tons during the month.

The exports were up sharply by 8.6% when compared with the exports during the same month a year before. The country’s steel scrap exports during February last year had totaled 684,000 tons. The Japanese steel scrap exports jumped higher significantly when compared with the previous month. The exports were up by 20.3% when matched with the exports of 618,000 tons during January this year.

The largest importer of Japanese scrap during the month of February this year was South Korea. The scrap imports by South Korea totaled 260,000 tons, constituting nearly 35% of the total scrap exports by Japan during the month. The scrap exports to South Korea increased marginally by 0.8% over the previous year. Japan had exported 258,000 tons of scrap to South Korea during February 2015. In second place was Vietnam with scrap steel imports from Japan totaling to 188,000 tons. The exports to Vietnam surged significantly higher by 51.4% year-on-year. The other main importers of Japanese steel scrap were China (122,000 tons, up by 6.5%) and Taiwan (101,000 tons, down 36.4%).

The cumulative scrap exports by Japan during the initial two-month period of the year totaled 1.361 million tons. The country’s steel scrap export is estimated at exceed 8 million tons during the entire year 2016.

Meantime, the country’s steel exports during the month have increased by nearly 3% in February this year to 3.382 million tons. This is the first time in seven months that steel shipments out of the country have reported increase.