Japan Steel Sheet Import Decreases in April

Japanese steel sheet import decreased by 13% to 29,259 tonnes in April from March for hot-rolled, cold-rolled and galvanized products when offshore steel makers raised their selling prices for steel sheet and Japanese trading houses and importers reduced the purchasing with less price merit. Trader source said Japanese steel sheet import would continue decreasing for a while due to little spare productive capacity at POSCO and higher steel sheet prices at overseas than before.The import decreased by 11.9% to 117,619 tonnes for hot-rolled steel sheet in April from March, by 17.4% to 47,892 tonnes for cold-rolled steel sheet and by 9.3% to 30,066 tonnes for zinc coated steel sheet. The import decreased by 17% to 118,066 tonnes from South Korea and by 1.4% to 59,850 tonnes from Taiwan, while increased by 12.4% to 10,861 tonnes from China.