According to the customs statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance, the country's total iron and steel product exports in July 2009 amounted to 3.21 million metric tons, increasing by 11.6 percent month on month, but decreasing by 3.2 percent, compared to July 2008, generating a total of $2.81 billion in value. Meanwhile, Japanese iron and steel product imports in July increased by 31.4 percent over June and decreased by 51.6 percent year on year to 366,034 metric tons, reaching a total value of $413.07 million.
On the other hand, in the first seven months of the year, Japan's total iron and steel product exports slid 27.6 percent year on year to 16.9 million metric tons.
Regarding to Japan's major export markets, in the first seven months of 2009 country's iron and steel product exports to South Korea totaled 5.04 million metric tons, down 14.1 percent, exports to China amounted to 3.45 million, down 14.5 percent, export volume to Taiwan reached 1.5 million metric tons, down 37.4 percent, 1,09 million metric tons to Thailand, down 59.3 percent and 643,723 metric tons to USA, down 36.1 percent, all compared to corresponding period of 2008.
In the January-July period of 2009, Japan's total iron and steel product imports totaled 2.256 million metric tons, down 53.2 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.
In the first seven months of 2009 Japan imported 935,259 metric tons of iron and steel products from South Korea, down 44.3 percent, 416,678 metric tons from China, down 65 percent and 324,458 metric tons from Taiwan, down 38.3 percent, all compared to Jan-July 2008.
Exports | Imports | |||||
July 2009 (mt) | Monthly change (%) | Yearly change (%) | July 2009 (mt) | Monthly change (%) | Yearly change (%) | |
Semi-finished | 617,971 | 18.1 | 54.1 | 396 | 14 | 0.9 |
Bars | 17,793 | -57.4 | -66 | 1,205 | 95.1 | 3.1 |
39,829 | -9.4 | 5.3 | 22,334 | -8.5 | -1.4 | |
Heavy plate | 300,768 | 14.1 | 9.7 | 5,619 | -33.1 | -66.3 |
719,900 | 28 | 17.6 | 98,153 | 46.6 | -33.5 | |
334,234 | 34.4 | 17.1 | 50,462 | 47.7 | -44.3 | |
Galvanized sheet | 331,890 | 35.9 | -29.8 | 22,062 | 51.2 | -41.5 |
Special steel | 411,027 | 2.9 | -25.2 | 14,616 | 26.1 | -23 |