TOKYO: The steel scrap exports by Japan during the month of September this year declined considerably, as per the latest data released by the country’s Ministry of Finance. According to MoF data, the country’s scrap exports totaled 499,000 tons during the month.
The exports were down sharply by 11.7% when compared with the exports during the same month a year before. The country’s steel scrap exports during September last year had totaled 565,000 tons. The Japanese steel scrap exports dropped sharply when compared with the previous month. The exports were down by nearly 7% when matched with 535,000 tons during August this year.
The largest importer of Japanese scrap during the month of September this year was South Korea. The scrap imports by South Korea totaled 237,000 tons, constituting nearly 48% of the total scrap exports by Japan during the month. The scrap exports to South Korea dropped by nearly 15.3% over the previous year. Japan had exported 280,000 tons of scrap to South Korea during September 2014. In second place was China with scrap steel imports from Japan totaling to 159,000 tons. The exports to China increased marginally by 2.2% year-on-year. The other main importers of Japanese steel scrap were Vietnam (84,000 tons, up 1.6%) and Taiwan (8,000 tons, down 82.5%).
The cumulative scrap exports by Japan during the initial nine-month period of the year totaled 5.921 million tons.
The country’s steel scrap export for the whole year 2015 is estimated at 7.90 million tons.
