Japan Ferrous Scrap Export Volume Marks New Record in 2005

Japanese ferrous scrap export increased by 11.4% to 7.585 million tonnes in 2005 from 2004, marking the highest for 2 consecutive years, according to the trade statistics by Ministry of Finance. The averaged export value rose by 7.5% to 28,553 yen per tonne and exceeded the previous year’s average for 4 straight years. The export for South Korea and China continued to grow steadily and marked the highest in volume for the both. However, the export for China seems to decline in the last half of fiscal 2005 ending March 2006 after Chinese government announced the restrictive measures for domestic steel production equipment in July, 2005. Ferrous scrap export might decrease in 2006 from 2005. The export increased by 24% to 3.465 million tonnes for China in 2005 and by 8.2% to 2.876 million tonnes for South Korea. The export decreased by 5.7% to 876,000 tonnes for Taiwan. Total export volume for these 3 countries represented 95.2% of the total scrap export. The export for the other countries decreased by 15.6% to 366,000 tonnes. The export for China decreased by 26.6% to 206,000 tonnes in November 2005 from a year ago and by 21% to 240,000 tonnes in December 2005, when Chinese demand declined for ferrous scrap with the low market prices of steel products due to the restrict measures against domestic steel production. Large volume orders for ferrous scrap are unlikely to come for a while.