Russia's stainless steel exports surged 4% in November; Japanese exports declined

By Anil Mathews

MOSCOW (Scrap Monster): The latest trade statistics released by the Russian SpetsStal Association suggests marginal increase in exports of stainless steel products by the country during the month of November this year. Also, imports were up marginally when compared with the previous month. Meantime, Japanese stainless steel exports declined during the month, in accordance with the data released by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Trade.

As per data, Russia exported 482,000 tons of stainless steel products during November this year, marginally higher by over 4% when matched with the previous month. The country’s stainless steel product exports had totaled 463,000 tons during October this year. The key importer of stainless steel products from Russia during the month was Ukraine. The country accounted for nearly 51% of the total Russian exports. The stainless steel product imports by Ukraine from the country totaled 246,000 tons during November. The second largest destination of Russian stainless steel products was Lithuania, accounting for 15% of Russian exports. The other key importers during the month were Finland (39,000 tons), Poland (34,000 tons) and France (19,000 tons).

Russia imported 31,285 tons of stainless steel products during November this year, rising marginally by 3.4% when matched with the month before. The country had imported 30,256 tons of stainless steel products during October this year. Product-wise, imports of stainless steel sheets declined by nearly 1% over the previous month. The imports of seamless stainless steel tube products witnessed sharp decline of nearly 48% month-on-month. Meantime, the country’s imports of stainless steel pipe fittings during November this year increased by nearly 10% in comparison with the previous month. The cumulative stainless steel product imports have surged higher by nearly 29% over the previous month to 275,000 tons. The country had imported 214,000 tons during Jan-Nov ’15.

The data published by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Trade indicates that the country’s stainless steel products exports declined by over 13% year-on-year to 78,386 tons during November this year. Japan had exported 90,269 tons of such products during the same month a year before. The exports to all major destinations declined during the month. The exports to Taiwan fell the most, dropping by nearly 41% over the previous month. The exports to Korea were down by nearly 34%. Japan’s exports of stainless steel products to the US registered 16.3% decline over the previous month. The exports to China too dropped by 3.5% during the month.

The global stainless steel output during the initial nine months of 2016 amounted to 33.585 million metric tons, higher by 7.0% when compared with the output of 31.397 million mt during Jan-Sep ‘16. When compared with the production during the quarter before, the stainless steel output during Q3 2016 has declined by 2.9%. The global stainless steel output during Q2 2016 had totaled 11.827 million mt as compared with 11.488 million mt during Q3 this year.

The recent statistics released by the International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) says that global stainless steel production increased by 7.0% during the initial nine months of 2016, in comparison with the corresponding three quarters in 2015. The stainless steel melt shop production during the third quarter of the year dropped marginally by 2.9% when matched with Q2 2016.