In December last year, Japan's iron and steel product exports amounted to 3.38 million metric tons, rising by 3.7 percent month on month and down by 5.4 percent year on year, while Japan's iron and steel product imports totaled 709,308 metric tons, with a month-on-month decrease of 3.2 percent and a year-on-year rise of 2.1 percent, according to the customs statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (JISF).
In 2016, Japanese iron and steel product exports amounted to 41.2 million mt, declining by one percent, while Japanese iron and steel product imports came to 8.1 million mt, rising by 0.9 percent, both compared to 2015.
Regarding Japan's major iron and steel product export markets, in 2016 the country's iron and steel exports to South Korea totaled 6.96 million mt, up five percent, while exports to China increased by 3.1 percent to 5.53 million mt, the export volume to Taiwan amounted to 2.57 million metric tons, down 11.3 percent, exports to Thailand totaled 5.78 million metric tons, rising by 11 percent, while exports to the US totaled 2.06 million metric tons, falling by 15.6 percent, all year on year.
In 2016, Japan imported 3.67 million metric tons of iron and steel products from South Korea, up 4.4 percent, it imported 1.68 million metric tons from China, decreasing by 7.4 percent, while imports from Taiwan fell 2.4 percent to 1.09 million metric tons, all compared to 2015.
| Exports | Imports | |||||||
| December 2016 (mt) | Change m-o-m (%) | 2016 | Change y-o-y (%) | December 2016 (mt) | Change m-o-m (%) | 2016 | Change y-o-y (%) | |
| Semi-finished | 357,550 | -5.9 | 4,520,473 | -5.4 | 19,529 | -8.3 | 196,294 | 30 |
| Bars | 47,536 | 48 | 656,176 | 6.6 | 2,583 | -21.5 | 35,347 | -13.3 |
| 49,575 | -10 | 769,789 | 1.9 | 6,107 | -28 | 81,142 | -25.9 | |
| Heavy plate | 203,530 | -8.5 | 2,869,903 | -6.9 | 40,765 | -17.3 | 558,540 | -5.6 |
| 1,082,005 | 10.6 | 12,982,205 | -0.7 | 146,757 | -10.4 | 1,693,671 | 2.4 | |
| 225,687 | - | 2,703,630 | -0.4 | 56,310 | -27.2 | 815,119 | -3.6 | |
| Galvanized sheet | 246,001 | 0.9 | 2,949,959 | -6.5 | 43,802 | -35.5 | 694,748 | -4.3 |
| Special steel | 710,260 | -0.7 | 8,429,565 | 9.2 | 102,418 | 20.3 | 1,090,534 | 11.8 |
| Stainless steel | 90,869 | 15.9 | 1,015,309 | -3.5 | 19,474 | -1.0 | 209,200 | 20.5 |