Japan's iron and steel product exports down 0.9 percent in August

In August this year, Japan's iron and steel product exports amounted to 3.15 million metric tons, rising by 3.9 percent month on month and down by 0.9 percent year on year, while Japan's iron and steel product imports totaled 567,567 metric tons, with a month-on-month decrease of 20.7 percent and a year-on-year decline of 17.7 percent, according to the customs statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (JISF).

In the January-August period of this year, Japanese iron and steel product exports amounted to 24.84 million mt, declining by 2.3 percent, while Japanese iron and steel product imports came to 5.49 million mt, falling by 4.3 percent, both compared to the same period of 2017. 

Regarding Japan's major iron and steel product export markets, in the first eight months of this year the country's iron and steel exports to South Korea totaled 3.59 million mt, down 11.6 percent, while exports to China decreased by 1.6 percent to 3.68 million mt, the export volume to Taiwan amounted to 1.9 million metric tons, up 0.8 percent, exports to Thailand totaled 3.88 million metric tons, rising by 6.4 percent, while exports to the US totaled 1.04 million metric tons, falling by 20.2 percent, all year on year. 

In the January-August period of the current year, Japan imported 2.51 million metric tons of iron and steel products from South Korea, down 8.3 percent, it imported 920,007 metric tons from China, decreasing by 15 percent, while imports from Taiwan fell 2.6 percent to 734,660 metric tons, all compared to the same period of last year.