In October this year, Japan's iron and steel product exports amounted to 3.43 million metric tons, rising by three percent month on month and down by 4.3 percent year on year, while Japan's iron and steel product imports totaled 699,226 metric tons, with a month-on-month decline of 0.4 percent and a year-on-year decrease of 8.7 percent, according to the customs statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (JISF).
In the first ten months of the current year, Japanese iron and steel product exports amounted to 34.83 million mt, declining by a slight margin of 0.5 percent, while Japanese iron and steel product imports came to 6.65 million mt, decreasing by 15.6 percent, both compared to the same period of 2014.
Regarding Japan's major iron and steel product export markets, in the first ten months this year the country's iron and steel exports to South Korea totaled 5.56 million mt, down 9.1 percent, while exports to China decreased by 9.6 percent to 4.52 million mt, the export volume to Taiwan amounted to 2.5 million metric tons, down 11.9 percent, exports to Thailand totaled 4.42 million metric tons, declining by 5.7 percent, while exports to the US totaled 2.01 million metric tons, falling by 0.9 percent, all year on year.
In the January-October period, Japan imported 2.94 million metric tons of iron and steel products from South Korea, down 16.5 percent, it imported 1.48 million metric tons from China, decreasing by 17.1 percent, while imports from Taiwan fell 5.7 percent to 921,584 metric tons, all compared to the first ten months of 2014.
| Exports | Imports | |||||||
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| October 2015 (mt) | Change m-o-m (%) | January- October 2015 | Change y-o-y (%) | October 2015 (mt) | Change m-o-m (%) | January- October 2015 | Change y-o-y (%) |
| Semi-finished | 407,398 | -1.4 | 3,929,612 | -11.8 | 17,259 | 28 | 118,949 | -46.4 |
| Bars | 42,439 | -2.4 | 517,308 | 133.5 | 3,402 | 22.3 | 31,219 | -10.2 |
| Wire rod | 63,796 | 4.2 | 627,057 | 5.2 | 14,723 | 103.6.4 | 94,409 | 1.8 |
| Heavy plate | 255,641 | 10 | 2,585,890 | 13.9 | 58,711 | 38.3 | 492,630 | -15.6 |
| HRC | 1,048,125 | -2.62 | 10,817,122 | 15.7 | 157,632 | 4.79 | 1,366,054 | -8.04 |
| CRC | 238,321 | 9.93 | 2,325,004 | -2.12 | 61,939 | -3.89 | 712,787 | -16.29 |
| Galvanized sheet | 256,109 | -0.3 | 2,689,841 | -15.8 | 76,697 | 4.9 | 593,691 | -14 |
| Special steel | 645,847 | 13.8 | 6,507,061 | -12 | 84,172 | -16.2 | 791,891 | -11.8 |
| Stainless steel | 85,715 | 0.5 | 899,414 | -7.9 | 18,170 | 43.1 | 143,536 | -21.5 |