Japan's December steel exports up

Data from the Japanese Iron and Steel Federation show that Japan's steel exports rose 18.5 percent year on year to 3.19 million metric tons in December 2006. For the whole of 2006, Japan's steel exports reached 35.19 million metric tons, up 7.9 percent from a year earlier. In December 2006, Japan's steel exports to South Korea rose 33 percent year on year to 789,534 metric tons, while exports to China grew 23.9 percent to 522,770 metric tons in the same month. In addition, Japan's December steel exports to Thailand rose 26.9 percent to 362,265 metric tons, while those to Taiwan increased 16.6 percent to 364,634 metric tons. Japan's steel exports to the US fell 14.8 percent to 169,434 metric tons in December.