In August this year, Japan's iron and steel product exports amounted to 3.51 million metric tons, falling by 1.9 percent month on month and up by 2.3 percent year on year, while Japan's iron and steel product imports totaled 710,161 metric tons, with a month-on-month increase of 17.4 percent and a year-on-year rise of 6.6 percent, according to the customs statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (JISF).
In the first eight months of this year, Japanese iron and steel product exports amounted to 27.81 million mt, declining by 0.9 percent, while Japanese iron and steel product imports came to 5.26 million mt, increasing 0.2 percent, both compared to the same period of 2015.
Regarding Japan's major iron and steel product export markets, in the January-August period of this year the country's iron and steel exports to South Korea totaled 4.81 million mt, up 9.9 percent, while exports to China increased by 1.1 percent to 3.69 million mt, the export volume to Taiwan amounted to 1.71 million metric tons, down 18.5 percent, exports to Thailand totaled 3.94 million metric tons, rising by 12.5 percent, while exports to the US totaled 1.41 million metric tons, falling by 13.1 percent, all year on year.
In the first eight months of the current year, Japan imported 2.36 million metric tons of iron and steel products from South Korea, up 2.3 percent, it imported 1.11 million metric tons from China, decreasing by 3.8 percent, while imports from Taiwan rose 0.6 percent to 735,856 metric tons, all compared to the same period of 2015.
| Exports | Imports | |||||||
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| August 2016 (mt) | Change m-o-m (%) | January-August 2016 | Change y-o-y (%) | August 2016 (mt) | Change m-o-m (%) | January-August 2016 | Change y-o-y (%) |
| Semi-finished | 308,197 | -16.7 | 3,170,373 | 2.0 | 5,753 | -63.9 | 127,277 | 44.3 |
| Bars | 24,504 | -65.1 | 471,157 | 8.9 | 4,113 | 34.6 | 24,805 | -0.9 |
| Wire rod | 73,415 | 18.9 | 547,596 | 10.3 | 6,294 | 12.1 | 54,973 | -24.1 |
| Heavy plate | 270,143 | -15.2 | 2,031,851 | -3.1 | 53,987 | 46.6 | 345,614 | -11.7 |
| HRC | 1,166,317 | 11.3 | 8,820,642 | 1.5 | 157,758 | 23.7 | 1,105,527 | 4.5 |
| CRC | 235,301 | -5.1 | 1,786,686 | -4.4 | 78,452 | 19.3 | 532,951 | -9.1 |
| Galvanized sheet | 270,145 | 4.3 | 1,959,377 | -10 | 55,100 | 16.3 | 464,771 | 4.7 |
| Special steel | 732,361 | -3.9 | 5,501,114 | 3,9 | 111,128 | 63.5 | 711,709 | 17.2 |
| Stainless steel | 84,221 | -8.8 | 663,242 | -9.0 | 13,412 | -10.6 | 133,019 | 18.1 |