SteelOrbis Shanghai
The Japanese domestic market reports a huge decline in the quantities of H-beam imports arriving from South
Korea, while H-beam imports from
China on the contrary are increasing.
According to the statistics for January 2007,
Japan imported a total of 11,609 mt of H-beam during the month, 0.9 percent less than in December and 45.7 percent down on the figure for January 2006.
In January 2007,
Japan imported just 387 mt of H-beam from South
Korea, down 80.9 percent compared with the figure of 2,022 mt recorded in December, and down 97.8 percent from January 2006.
On the other hand, Japanese H-beam imports from
China in January this year amounted to 11,221 mt, 15.5 percent up compared with the previous month and 3.36 times up on the figure for January 2006.
Regarding the price levels, South Korean H-beam prices average at 60,000 Yen/mt ($508/mt), while Chinese prices are around 57,520 Yen/mt ($486/mt) in Japanese domestic market.