Japan's iron and steel product exports down 2.1 percent in June

In June this year, Japan's iron and steel product exports amounted to 3.14 million metric tons, falling by 2.3 percent month on month and down by 2.1 percent year on year, while Japan's iron and steel product imports totaled 685,089 metric tons, with a month-on-month decrease of 7.4 percent and a year-on-year decline of 11.4 percent, according to the customs statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (JISF).

In the January-June period of this year, Japanese iron and steel product exports amounted to 18.66 million mt, declining by 3.2 percent, while Japanese iron and steel product imports came to 4.21 million mt, falling by 2.5 percent, both compared to the same period of 2017. 

Regarding Japan's major iron and steel product export markets, in the first six months of this year the country's iron and steel exports to South Korea totaled 2.74 million mt, down 12.2 percent, while exports to China decreased by 4.3 percent to 2.76 million mt, the export volume to Taiwan amounted to 1.41 million metric tons, down 0.2 percent, exports to Thailand totaled 2.85 million metric tons, rising by 4.5 percent, while exports to the US totaled 816,579 metric tons, falling by 15.6 percent, all year on year. 

In the January-June period of the current year, Japan imported 1.93 million metric tons of iron and steel products from South Korea, down seven percent, it imported 701,257 metric tons from China, decreasing by eight percent, while imports from Taiwan fell 4.9 percent to 546,247 metric tons, all compared to the same period of last year.