Japanese Carbon Steel Export Drops by 16.8% in November

Japanese carbon steel export decreased by 16.8% to 1.983 million tonnes in November from a year earlier, which represented year-to-year decrease for three months in a row, announced by Japan Iron and Steel Federation on Thursday. The export for South Korea represented year-to-year decrease for twelve straight months when South Korean steel makers aggressively increase production capacity and domestic supply. The export for Thailand showed the first year-to-year decrease in five months when car and other steel consuming industries were damaged by flood disaster.

Japanese total steel export was 3.056 million tonnes in November, which decreased by 14.6% from a year earlier and decreased for nine straight months. The total export value was US$ 3.81 billion or 294.5 billion yen. The export value decreased by 3.7% from a year earlier and showed first year-to-year decrease at US dollar while the value decreased by 8.5% and turned to year-to-year decrease after two months at yen.

By countries, the total steel export for South Korea maintained the largest volume at 606,000 tonnes. Meanwhile, the carbon steel export for South Korea was 370,000 tonnes and became lower than 379,000 tonnes for China. As for the export to Thailand, the volume almost halved for flat rolled steel compared with the figure in a year earlier. Tinplate export dropped by 92.6%.

By carbon steel items, hot rolled wide strip decreased by 14.4% to 640,000 tonnes in November from a year earlier. The zinc coated steel sheet export decreased by 22.3% to 340,000 tonnes and the steel plate export decreased by 6.2% to 309,000 tonnes. The cold rolled wide strip export decreased by 15% to 268,000 tonnes and decreased by 19.2% to 65,000 tonnes for electrical steel. The shape steel export decreased by 29.9% to 59,000 tonnes. Meanwhile, welded and forge welded steel pipe export increased by 25.3% to 64,000 tonnes.