According to statistics released by Japan's Ministry of Finance, Japan's hot rolled flat steel exports totaled 984,324 metric tons in December 2011, increasing by 3.4 percent month on month and down 13.9 percent compared to December 2010.
Meanwhile, in the whole of 2011, Japan's hot rolled steel exports amounted to 12.4 million metric tons, falling by 4.3 percent as compared to the previous year.
In 2011, South Korea saw its hot rolled steel imports from Japan decrease by 26.5 percent year on year to 3.93 million metric tons, while China imported 1.5 million metric tons from the same source, down 1.5 percent compared to 2010. Japanese hot rolled steel exports to Thailand totaled 1.5 million metric tons in 2011, falling by 9.3 percent year on year.