In September this year, Japan's iron and steel product exports amounted to 3.39 million metric tons, falling by 3.4 percent month on month and up by 1.7 percent year on year, while Japan's iron and steel product imports totaled 689,023 metric tons, with a month-on-month decrease of three percent and a year-on-year fall of 1.9 percent, according to the customs statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (JISF).
In the first nine months of this year, Japanese iron and steel product exports amounted to 31.19 million mt, declining by 0.6 percent, while Japanese iron and steel product imports came to 5.95 million mt, remaining stable, both compared to the same period of 2015.
Regarding Japan's major iron and steel product export markets, in the January-September period of this year the country's iron and steel exports to South Korea totaled 5.34 million mt, up 7.3 percent, while exports to China increased by 1.7 percent to 4.13 million mt, the export volume to Taiwan amounted to 1.94 million metric tons, down 15.3 percent, exports to Thailand totaled 4.37 million metric tons, rising by 10.5 percent, while exports to the US totaled 1.59 million metric tons, falling by 11.5 percent, all year on year.
In the first nine months of the current year, Japan imported 2.68 million metric tons of iron and steel products from South Korea, up 2.7 percent, it imported 1.25 million metric tons from China, decreasing by 4.7 percent, while imports from Taiwan fell 1.7 percent to 811,318 metric tons, all compared to the same period of 2015.
| Exports | Imports | |||||||
|
| September 2016 (mt) | Change m-o-m (%) | January-September 2016 | Change y-o-y (%) | September 2016 (mt) | Change m-o-m (%) | January-September 2016 | Change y-o-y (%) |
| Semi-finished | 324,091 | 5.2 | 3,494,463 | -0.8 | 16,688 | 190.1 | 143,965 | 41.6 |
| Bars | 64,022 | 161.3 | 535,179 | 12.4 | 2,929 | -28.8 | 27,734 | -0.3 |
| 57,248 | -22 | 604,843 | 7.4 | 5,062 | -19.6 | 60,035 | -24.7 | |
| Heavy plate | 198,559 | -26.5 | 2,230,410 | -4.3 | 54,094 | 0.2 | 399,708 | -7.9 |
| 1,049,276 | -10 | 9,869,918 | 1.3 | 146,487 | -7.1 | 1,252,015 | 3.6 | |
| 221,318 | -5.9 | 2,008,004 | -3.8 | 71,907 | -8.3 | 604,858 | -7.1 | |
| Galvanized sheet | 253,389 | -6.2 | 1,212,766 | -9.1 | 54,584 | -0.9 | 519,355 | 0.5 |
| Special steel | 746,846 | 2 | 6,247,960 | 6,6 | 88,865 | -20 | 800,574 | 13.1 |
| Stainless steel | 92,543 | 9.9 | 755,785 | -7.2 | 14,878 | 10.9 | 147,897 | 18 |