In July this year, Japan's iron and steel product exports amounted to 3.58 million metric tons, rising by 4.1 percent month on month and up by 1.2 percent year on year, while Japan's iron and steel product imports totaled 605,176 metric tons, with a month-on-month decrease of 2.7 percent and a year-on-year fall of 4.6 percent, according to the customs statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (JISF).
In the first seven months of this year, Japanese iron and steel product exports amounted to 24.29 million mt, declining by 1.4 percent, while Japanese iron and steel product imports came to 4.55 million mt, decreasing 0.7 percent, both compared to the same period of 2015.
Regarding Japan's major iron and steel product export markets, in the January-July period of this year the country's iron and steel exports to South Korea totaled 4.22 million mt, up 11.1 percent, while exports to China decreased by 0.5 percent to 3.22 million mt, the export volume to Taiwan amounted to 1.48 million metric tons, down 20.8 percent, exports to Thailand totaled 3.41 million metric tons, rising by 12 percent, while exports to the US totaled 1.23 million metric tons, falling by 13.4 percent, all year on year.
In the first seven months of the current year, Japan imported 2.05 million metric tons of iron and steel products from South Korea, up 2.5 percent, it imported 953,103 metric tons from China, decreasing by six percent, while imports from Taiwan fell 1.4 percent to 628,435 metric tons, all compared to the same period of 2015.
| Exports | Imports | |||||||
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| July 2016 (mt) | Change m-o-m (%) | January-July 2016 | Change y-o-y (%) | July 2016 (mt) | Change m-o-m (%) | January-July 2016 | Change y-o-y (%) |
| Semi-finished | 369,909 | -7.4 | 2,862,176 | 3.9 | 15,920 | 44.5 | 121,524 | 67.7 |
| Bars | 70,250 | 17.1 | 446,653 | 20.3 | 3,056 | 47.5 | 20,692 | -3.4 |
| 61,768 | -18.9 | 474,181 | 9.1 | 7,161 | 11.2 | 48,679 | -19.6 | |
| Heavy plate | 318,746 | 27.7 | 1,761,709 | -6.4 | 36,821 | -20.5 | 291,627 | -17.8 |
| 1,047,386 | -1.6 | 7,654,325 | 1.9 | 127,570 | 9.2 | 947,769 | 3.01 | |
| 247,893 | 15.3 | 1,551,386 | -4.4 | 65,479 | 9.1 | 454,499 | -10.4 | |
| Galvanized sheet | 259,043 | - | 1,689,233 | -12.3 | 47,375 | -1.5 | 409,671 | 10.7 |
| Special steel | 761,806 | 12.2 | 4,768,753 | 2.6 | 67,988 | -16.1 | 600,581 | 12.9 |
| Stainless steel | 92,306 | 9.4 | 579,022 | -10.1 | 15,009 | -11 | 119,607 | 23 |