Japan increases steel exports by 26 percent in 2010

Regarding Japan's major steel export markets, in 2010 the country's steel exports to South Korea totaled 10.96 million metric tons, up 11.5 percent; exports to China rose 16.2 percent and reached 7.51 million metric tons; the export volume to Taiwan reached 3.69 million metric tons, up 9.6 percent; exports to Thailand totaled 4.84 million metric tons, climbing by 61.9 percent; while exports to the US came to 1.49 million metric tons, increasing by 30.4 percent, all compared to 2009.

In 2010, Japan imported 2.8 million metric tons of steel from South Korea, up 46.1 percent, it imported 1.47 million metric tons from China, climbing by 75.9 percent, while imports from Taiwan came to 829,005 metric tons, improving by 32.3 percent over 2009.

Meanwhile, Japan's steel exports in December last year increased by 3.4 percent year on year reaching 3.7 million metric tons. However, as compared to the previous month, Japan's steel exports declined by 3.9 percent. Japan's steel imports in the given month came to 574,797 metric tons - down 10.1 percent year on year and up 21.5 percent month on month