Japan's iron and steel product exports down 9.3 percent in August

In August this year, Japan's iron and steel product exports amounted to 3.18 million metric tons, rising by 7.3 percent month on month and down by 9.3 percent year on year, while Japan's iron and steel product imports totaled 689,829 metric tons, with a month-on-month decrease of 7.7 percent and a year-on-year fall of 2.9 percent, according to the customs statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (JISF).

In the first eight months of this year, Japanese iron and steel product exports amounted to 25.42 million mt, declining by 8.6 percent, while Japanese iron and steel product imports came to 5.74 million mt, rising by nine percent, both compared to the same period of 2016. 

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 4.06 million mt, down 15.7 percent, while exports to China increased by 1.5 percent to 3.74 million mt, the export volume to Taiwan amounted to 1.88 million metric tons, up 10.3 percent, exports to Thailand totaled 3.65 million metric tons, falling by 7.5 percent, while exports to the US totaled 1.3 million metric tons, falling by 6.9 percent, all year on year. 

In the January-August period of the current year, Japan imported 2.74 million metric tons of iron and steel products from South Korea, up 16.3 percent, it imported 1.08 million metric tons from China, decreasing by 2.8 percent, while imports from Taiwan rose 2.5 percent to 754,456 metric tons, all compared to the same period of last year.