Japan Carbon Steel Import Drops by 18.5% in January-June

Japanese carbon steel import decreased by 18.5% to 1.844 million tonnes in January-June from same period of 2005, according to Japan Iron and Steel Federation. The special steel import decreased by 34.4% to 116,336 tonnes. Japanese trading houses and distributors apparently reduced the flat steel import at higher price when steel market price increased since the spring in Eastern Asia. The import decreased for hot rolled flat steel, cold rolled steel, tinplate, steel pipe in January-June from same period of 2005 while the import increased for H-beam, shapes and wire rod. The steel import from South Korea represented 57.1% of total steel import and the share was 23.6% for Taiwan and 16.1% for China.