In September this year, Japan's iron and steel products exports amounted to 3.48 million metric tons, decreasing by 2.3 percent year on year and down by 6.5 percent compared to August this year, while Japan's steel imports totaled 603,567 metric tons, with a month-on-month decrease of 9.9 percent and a year-on-year decrease of 4.9 percent, according to the customs statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance.
In the meantime, in the first nine months of the current year Japanese steel exports amounted to 33.2 million mt, rising 4.8 percent, while Japanese steel imports came to 5.48 million mt, decreasing by 7.2 percent, both compared to the January-September period of the previous year.
Regarding Japan's major steel export markets, in the first nine months of this year the country's steel exports to South Korea totaled 6 million mt, down 6.2 percent, while steel exports to China decreased by 2.9 percent to 4.52 million mt; the export volume to Taiwan amounted to 2.97 million metric tons, up 15.1 percent; exports to Thailand totaled 4.27 million metric tons, up 8.2 percent; while exports to the US came to 1.77 million metric tons, decreasing 9.1 percent, all compared to the same period of the previous year.
In the January-September period, Japan imported 2.5 million metric tons of steel from South Korea, down 12.2 percent, it imported 931,026 metric tons from China, down 10 percent, while imports from Taiwan rose to 738,816 metric tons, increasing by 4.6 percent, all compared to the same period of the previous year.