The South East Asia Iron and Steel Institute (SEAISI) has shared the ASEAN-6 countries’ finished steel import and export data for the first half this year. In the given period, finished steel imports in ASEAN-6 countries increased by 6.8 percent to 25.2 million mt, while finished steel exports in the region rose by 20.4 percent to 11.5 million mt, both year on year.
In the first half, long steel imports in the region declined by eight percent year on year to 6.1 million mt. Imports of most long products dropped by double digit rates, however wire rod imports increased by 16 percent year on year. The major source of wire rod imports in ASEAN-6 is China.
Flat steel imports in the region increased by 12.6 percent year on year to 19 million mt in the first half. Imports of most flat products registered positive growth rates, however plate imports dropped by 10.5 percent year on year to 1.4 million mt.
Hot rolled coil imports in ASEAN-6 increased by 9.4 percent year on year to 8.3 million mt in the given period. China is the largest source of HRC imports in the region with an increase of import volume from 1.3 million mt in the first half last year to 2.9 million mt in the first half this year. Imports from Japan increased by 25 percent year on year to 2.5 million mt.
In the given half, cold rolled coil imports in the region surged by 21.4 percent to 2.8 million mt. Imports from Japan, the key source of CRC, increased by 23 percent year on year to 1.1 million mt, followed by China with 604,280 mt, up by 34 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, both long and flat steel exports in the region registered double digit growth rates in the first half this year. Long steel exports increased by 15.5 percent to 6.2 million mt, while flat steel exports rose by 26.7 percent to 5.3 million mt, both year on year.
In the first half, bar exports in ASEAN-6 increased to 3.5 million mt, 80 percent of which was the exports from Malaysia and major destination was to China.
The region’s exports of hot rolled plates dropped by 29 percent year on year to 497,142 mt in the first half. Export of hot rolled coil jumped 38 percent year on year to 1.7 million mt. Nearly half of the export was intra-ASEAN trade, followed by export to Taiwan and Italy.
Export of cold rolled coil rose by 24 percent year on year to nearly 1 million mt in the first six months of 2021.