In May this year, Japan's iron and steel product exports amounted to 3.65 million metric tons, rising by 12.7 percent month on month and up by 4.8 percent year on year, while Japan's iron and steel product imports totaled 635,900 metric tons, with a month-on-month increase of 0.5 percent and a year-on-year rise of 0.2 percent, according to the customs statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (JISF).
In the first five months of this year, Japanese iron and steel product exports amounted to 17.28 million mt, declining by 2.2 percent, while Japanese iron and steel product imports came to 3.32 million mt, rising by 0.5 percent, both compared to the same period of 2015.
Regarding Japan's major iron and steel product export markets, in the January-May period of this year the country's iron and steel exports to South Korea totaled 2.98 million mt, up 7.7 percent, while exports to China decreased by 1.2 percent to 2.25 million mt, the export volume to Taiwan amounted to 1.05 million metric tons, down 25.1 percent, exports to Thailand totaled 2.34 million metric tons, rising by 8.4 percent, while exports to the US totaled 789,642 metric tons, falling by 21.9 percent, all year on year.
In the January-May period of the current year, Japan imported 1.51 million metric tons of iron and steel products from South Korea, up 5.5 percent, it imported 709,335 metric tons from China, decreasing by 3.1 percent, while imports from Taiwan rose 0.8 percent to 451,687 metric tons, all compared to the same period of 2015.
| Exports | Imports | |||||||
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| May 2016 (mt) | Change m-o-m (%) | January-May 2016 | Change y-o-y (%) | May 2016 (mt) | Change m-o-m (%) | January-May 2016 | Change y-o-y (%) |
| Semi-finished | 447,949 | 17.4 | 2,092,698 | 1.0 | 28,174 | 102.7 | 94,589 | 89.8 |
| Bars | 72,502 | -6.3 | 316,385 | 35.3 | 2,406 | -17.1 | 15,566 | 6.2 |
| Wire rod | 68,074 | 7.9 | 336,253 | 6.8 | 5,415 | -7 | 35,080 | -17.8 |
| Heavy plate | 251,255 | 14.4 | 1,193,441 | -11.4 | 44,390 | 24.6 | 208,486 | -17.7 |
| 1,260,599 | 22.8 | 5,542,750 | 6.4 | 150,987 | 8.3 | 703,428 | 9.6 | |
| 215,024 | 4.8 | 1,088,496 | -5.6 | 63,455 | 4.4 | 329,009 | -13.8 | |
| Galvanized sheet | 219,160 | -10 | 1,171,037 | -15.4 | 57,269 | 8,3 | 314,177 | 21.4 |
| Special steel | 661,910 | 7.7 | 3,327,825 | -1.7 | 64,430 | -33.3 | 451,592 | 19.3 |
| Stainless steel | 75,948 | -7.6 | 402,352 | -12.7 | 17,495 | 14.5 | 87,728 | 26.6 |