Japan Carbon Steel Import Rises by 12.4% in May

Japanese carbon steel import increased by 12.4% to 346,400 tonnes in May from a year earlier, announced by Japan Iron and Steel Federation on Thursday. The hot rolled flat steel import increased by 28.8% to 138,700 tonnes. The carbon steel import increased by 9.4% to 1.676 million tonnes and could reach 4 million tonnes in the year for the first time in 2 years. The hot, cold and galvanizing steel sheet import increased by 27.0% to 279,805 tonnes in May from a year earlier. The import increased by 23.6% to 95,187 tonnes for cold sheet and by 35,957 tonnes for galvanizing sheet. The import increased by 20.0% to 756,946 tonnes for hot rolled sheet, by 18.2% to 400,275 tonnes for cold sheet and by 12.3% to 166,495 tonnes for galvanizing sheet in January-May from same period of 2006. The hot, cold and galvanizing sheet import increased by 18.5% to 1.324 million tonnes. The plate steel import decreased by 49.9% to 13,290 tonnes in May from a year earlier. The import decreased by 0.4% to 97,920 tonnes in January-May from same period of 2006. The H-beam import increased by 43.4% to 13,000 tonnes in May from a year earlier while the wire rod import decreased by 42.5% to 25,700 tonnes. The import decreased by 28.5% to 52,167 tonnes for H-beam and by 27.6% to 104,162 tonnes for wire rod in January-May from same period of 2006.