In February this year, Japan's iron and steel product exports amounted to 3.21 million metric tons, rising by 0.3 percent month on month and down by 5.1 percent year on year, while Japan's iron and steel product imports totaled 627,242 metric tons, with a month-on-month decrease of 18.4 percent and a year-on-year fall of 12.4 percent, according to the customs statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (JISF).
In the first two months of this year, Japanese iron and steel product exports amounted to 6.41 million mt, declining by 2.5 percent, while Japanese iron and steel product imports came to 1.39 million mt, rising by 1.4 percent, both compared to the same period of 2016.
Regarding Japan's major iron and steel product export markets, in the January-February period of this year the country's iron and steel exports to South Korea totaled 1.01 million mt, down 8.1 percent, while exports to China increased by 13.3 percent to 925,583 mt, the export volume to Taiwan amounted to 428,965 metric tons, up seven percent, exports to Thailand totaled 930,237 metric tons, rising by 6.6 percent, while exports to the US totaled 300,226 metric tons, falling by 7.8 percent, all year on year.
In the first two months of the current year, Japan imported 696,089 metric tons of iron and steel products from South Korea, up 13.5 percent, it imported 229,603 metric tons from China, decreasing by 27.9 percent, while imports from Taiwan rose 8.3 percent to 188,075 metric tons, all compared to the same period of last year.
| Exports | Imports | |||||||
| February 2017 (mt) | Change m-o-m (%) | January-February 2017 | Change y-o-y (%) | February 2017 (mt) | Change m-o-m (%) | January-February 2017 | Change y-o-y (%) | |
| Semi-finished | 324,203 | -12.6 | 694,998 | -18.9 | 9,672 | -61.4 | 34,757 | - |
| Bars | 37,924 | -2.5 | 76,826 | -34.6 | 1,404 | -69.1 | 5,948 | -18.2 |
| 53,918 | -2.1 | 108,991 | -11.3 | 6,390 | 3.5 | 12,564 | -15.8 | |
| Heavy plate | 160,418 | 0.7 | 319,756 | -27.6 | 53,690 | 10.9 | 102,085 | 35.6 |
| 1,060,193 | -2.3 | 2,144,237 | 3.4 | 159,577 | 10.5 | 303,981 | 13 | |
| 210,337 | 12.4 | 397,325 | -6.6 | 76,012 | -12.7 | 163,006 | 16.7 | |
| Galvanized sheet | 264,302 | 17.7 | 488,936 | 11.9 | 54,923 | -23.6 | 126,849 | -13.8 |
| Special steel | 679,085 | -5.8 | 1,399,779 | 12.6 | 56,471 | -31.5 | 138,895 | -34.8 |
| Stainless steel | 87,763 | 20.9 | 160,338 | 3.5 | 19,770 | 19.5 | 36,321 | 7.0 |