Japanese steel exports rise in Aug 2016; crude output declines

By Anil Mathews

ScrapMonster Author

TOKYO (Scrap Monster): The trade statistics released by the Japanese Iron and Steel Federation (JISF) indicates that steel exports rose marginally over the previous year during the month of August this year. However, crude steel production declined marginally during the month.

As per data, Japan exported 3.509 million tons of steel during Aug ’16, marginally higher by 2.3% when matched with the previous year. The country’s steel exports had totaled 3.43 million tons during the same month a year before. Out of this, ordinary steel exports totaled 2.221 million tons, rising significantly by nearly 8% over the previous year. The exports of hot-rolled coils declined marginally by 1.2% year-on-year to 1.161 million tons. The exports of cold-rolled coils totaled 231,000 tons, declining marginally by 5.2%, when matched with the previous year. The steel plate exports by the country totaled 270,000 tons during the month.

Meantime, data published by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) suggests that H section exports by the country remained more or less flat over the year at 24,393 tons during August this year. The price of exports averaged at $533.08 per ton FOB during the month. The largest importer of H section from Japan during the month was Korea. The exports to Korea totaled 8,561 tons, accounting for more than one-third of the total Japanese H-section exports during the month. The other key importers of H section from Japan were Mexico (7,242 tons), Hong Kong (2,112 tons), Taiwan (2,004 tons) and China (1,189 tons).

Also, latest trade statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (MoF) indicates that the country’s ferrous scrap exports dropped significantly during the month of July this year. However, year-to-date exports during the initial seven-month period of the year stood higher when compared with 2015. Among Japanese ports, Chiba ranked first in terms of volume of ferrous scrap exports out of the country.

The MoF data indiactes that ferrous scrap exports by Japan totaled 647,435 tonnes during July 2016. The exports declined by 13.6% when matched with those during July last year. The country’s ferrous scrap export volumes had totaled 749,346 tonnes during July last year. The largest importer of Japanese scrap during the month of July this year was South Korea. The scrap imports by South Korea totaled 360,000 tons, constituting nearly 56% of the total scrap exports by Japan during the month. The scrap exports to South Korea dropped sharply by 16.4% over the previous year. In second place was China with scrap steel imports from Japan totaling to 157,000 tons. The exports to China surged significantly higher by nearly 20.9% year-on-year.

The year-to-date exports during the initial seven-month period of the year totaled 5.424 million tonnes, 11.1% higher when matched with the exports of 4.888 million tonnes reported during January to July last year. Japan had exported 4.887 tons of steel scrap during January to July last year. The average monthly exports stood at 775,000 tons during Jan-July ’16. The annualized scrap exports by the country in 2016 are estimated at 9.30 million tons.