Japan's iron and steel product exports up 3.7 percent in October

In October this year, Japan's iron and steel product exports amounted to 3.13 million metric tons, rising by 15.7 percent month on month and up by 3.7 percent year on year, while Japan's iron and steel product imports totaled 843,128 metric tons, with a month-on-month increase of 34.3 percent and a year-on-year rise of 25.3 percent, according to the customs statistics released by the Japan Iron and Steel Federation (JISF).

In the January-October period of this year, Japanese iron and steel product exports amounted to 30.68 million mt, declining by 2.9 percent, while Japanese iron and steel product imports came to 6.96 million mt, falling by 1.1 percent, both compared to the same period of 2017. 

Regarding Japan's major iron and steel product export markets, in the first ten months of this year the country's iron and steel exports to South Korea totaled 4.48 million mt, down 9.9 percent, while exports to China decreased by 0.9 percent to 4.62 million mt, the export volume to Taiwan amounted to 2.37 million metric tons, down by 1.9 percent, exports to Thailand totaled 4.87 million metric tons, rising by 8.1 percent, while exports to the US totaled 1.28 million metric tons, falling by 19.4 percent, all year on year. 

In the January-October period of the current year, Japan imported 3.12 million metric tons of iron and steel products from South Korea, down 7.1 percent, it imported 1.2 million metric tons from China, decreasing by 6.3 percent, while imports from Taiwan fell by one percent to 918,933 metric tons, all compared to the same period of last year.