Japan's iron and steel product exports up 2.3 percent in July

In July this year, Japan's iron and steel product exports amounted to 3.03 million metric tons, falling by 3.6 percent month on month and up by 2.3 percent year on year, while Japan's iron and steel product imports totaled 716,133 metric tons, with a month-on-month increase of 4.5 percent and a year-on-year decline of 2.1 percent, according to the customs statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (JISF).

In the January-July period of this year, Japanese iron and steel product exports amounted to 21.69 million mt, declining by 2.5 percent, while Japanese iron and steel product imports came to 4.92 million mt, falling by 2.4 percent, both compared to the same period of 2017. 

Regarding Japan's major iron and steel product export markets, in the first seven months of this year the country's iron and steel exports to South Korea totaled 3.15 million mt, down 10.9 percent, while exports to China decreased by 2.8 percent to 3.21 million mt, the export volume to Taiwan amounted to 1.66 million metric tons, down 0.5 percent, exports to Thailand totaled 3.36 million metric tons, rising by six percent, while exports to the US totaled 931,086 metric tons, falling by 17.2 percent, all year on year. 

In the January-July period of the current year, Japan imported 2.24 million metric tons of iron and steel products from South Korea, down 7.7 percent, it imported 828,969 metric tons from China, decreasing by 10.6 percent, while imports from Taiwan fell 0.7 percent to 661,022 metric tons, all compared to the same period of last year.