Japanese ferrous scrap exports amounted to 6.225 million mt in the January-October period of this year, which is in line with shipments in the same period last year, according to customs statistics.
Japanese suppliers have faced with sharp decline of shipments to China due to the import ban in China and full import stoppage since August. Ex-Japan exports to China dropped below 50,000 mt in the first ten months of the year, against more than 800,000 mt in the same period of the previous year. The main support for Japanese exporters came from Vietnam: Japan managed to ship 1.7 million mt of scrap to this country, up 38 percent from the January-October period of 2018. Taiwan and Bangladesh were also more active in purchases of Japanese scrap due to more flexible pricing compared to US-based sellers. Ex-Japan scrap supply to Taiwan added 22 percent to 487,000 mt in the given period, while shipments to Bangladesh reached 202,000 mt, against less than 100,000 mt in the same period last year.
South Korea has remained the number one customer for Japanese scrap, despite the gradual decrease in shipment volumes, which fell by three percent year on year to 3.35 million mt in January-October.