Japan's iron and steel product exports down 5.5 percent in April

In April this year, Japan's iron and steel product exports amounted to 2.8 million metric tons, falling by 15.9 percent month on month and down by 5.5 percent year on year, while Japan's iron and steel product imports totaled 725,443 metric tons, with a month-on-month increase of 12.8 percent and a year-on-year rise of two percent, according to the customs statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (JISF).

In the January-April period of this year, Japanese iron and steel product exports amounted to 12.29 million mt, declining by 4.4 percent, while Japanese iron and steel product imports came to 2.78 million mt, falling by 1.8 percent, both compared to the same period of 2017. 

Regarding Japan's major iron and steel product export markets, in the first four months of this year the country's iron and steel exports to South Korea totaled 1.81 million mt, down 13.2 percent, while exports to China decreased by 2.9 percent to 1.86 million mt, the export volume to Taiwan amounted to 918,227 metric tons, up 1.2 percent, exports to Thailand totaled 1.84 million metric tons, rising by one percent, while exports to the US totaled 557,896 metric tons, falling by 10.7 percent, all year on year. 

In the January-April period of the current year, Japan imported 1.3 million metric tons of iron and steel products from South Korea, down 6.1 percent, it imported 416,540 metric tons from China, decreasing by 8.9 percent, while imports from Taiwan fell 7.8 percent to 356,601 metric tons, all compared to the same period of last year.