JAPAN June 08 2017 2:41 PM
TOKYO (Scrap Register): Tokyo steel manufacturing, Japan's largest independent electric furnace steel maker has started to import scrap from China, with the expectation of China becoming the major scrap suppliers.

Period between May and June, the company imported about 3000 tons of scrap on a trail basis. It is believed to be the first major Japanese electric-furnace steelmaker to import scrap iron from China as most of the companies acquire scrap from domestic sources.

The company spokesman quoted “the procurement cost did not differ significantly from that procured domestically." The company will check the quality of the Chinese scrap iron before increasing imports from the country. 

About half of the world's crude steel is produced by China and the vast amount of cars and buildings it makes has created a mountain of steel materials. It is estimated that company has a stock more than 7 billion tons, which is five times more than Japan.