Japan's iron and steel product exports down 7.2% while imports up 37.3% in H1

In June this year, Japan's iron and steel product exports amounted to 3.62 million metric tons, increasing by 2.6 percent month on month, but down 2.1 percent year on year, while Japan's iron and steel product imports totaled 767,251 metric tons, with a month-on-month increase of 3.8 percent and a year-on-year increase of 32.3 percent, according to the customs statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (JISF).
 
In the first half of the current year, Japanese iron and steel product exports amounted to 20.78 million mt, decreasing by 7.2 percent, while Japanese iron and steel product imports came to 4.87 million mt, increasing by 37.3 percent, both compared to the January-June period of 2013.
 
Regarding Japan's major iron and steel product export markets, in the first half of this year the country's iron and steel exports to South Korea totaled 3.64 million mt, down 8.7 percent, while exports to China increased by 02 percent to 3 million mt, the export volume to Taiwan amounted to 1.76 million metric tons, down 15.5 percent, exports to Thailand totaled 2.78 million metric tons, down 3.2 percent, while exports to the US came to 1.18 million metric tons, increasing by 3.7 percent, all compared to the same period of 2013.
 
In the January-June period of the current year, Japan imported 2.22 million metric tons of iron and steel products from South Korea, up 33.6 percent, it imported 1.09 million metric tons from China, up 80.5 percent, while imports from Taiwan rose to 593,163 metric tons, increasing by 17.7 percent, all compared to the same period of 2013.