Japan's steel exports reach 11-month high

Imports remained volatile and only half of the m-o-m decrease in April was recovered.

The country exported 3.02 million tonnes of iron and steel products in May, up 13.2% m-o-m and only 0.1% y-o-y. Year-to-date exports decreased by 0.5% from a year ago to 13.79 million tonnes.

The annual trends for the main products were basically unchanged. Exports of standard steel products increased by 3.7 per cent in January-May, while exports of special steel decreased by 14.5 per cent. In the former product group, rails and seamless pipes and tubes still led the growth, while bars, welded pipes and tubes and tinplate performed worse than a year ago.

Monthly imports also recovered after a one-month decrease, but the increase was small. Japan imported 613,105 tonnes of steel in May, up 5.6% on month and 1.6% on year, and 3.06 million tonnes in January-May, up 1.2% on year.

Standard steel products contributed to the growth, up 12.7 per cent y-o-y, while special steel imports decreased 22.5 per cent y-o-y in five months. Semi-finished products, plate, wide strip and galvanised sheet were popular in import markets during the period, while narrow strip, pipes and tubes received less buying interest.

Shipments from the three largest suppliers, South Korea, China and Taiwan, grew faster than the y-o-y total for both the one- and five-month periods. Data show that five-month imports from other countries decreased by 16.7 per cent y-o-y and had a market share of only 22.3 per cent.