Japanese Steel Plate Import Doubles in CY2011

Japanese steel plate import doubled to 468,324 tonnes in CY2011 from CY2010 , according to Ministry of Finance. Domestic shipbuilders, construction machine and industrial machine makers increased procurement of imported steel plate under extremely strong yen trend. The import pace was especially high in the second half year at the level of 600,000-700,000 tonnes per year.

The import from South Korea expanded by 2.6 times to 370,162 tonnes. South Korean steel makers have aggressively expanded plate output capacities in recent years while their order receipts seems currently low from Korean shipbuilders. Then they increased export to Asian countries. Meanwhile, supply and demand balance of steel plate in South Korea is also loosing due to inflow of Chinese low grade plates.

Japanese steel plate import from China increased by 33.7% to 73,604 tonnes in CY2011 from CY2010 while the import from Taiwan kept flat at 23,933 tonnes.

Japanese steel plate export decreased by 4.6% to 3.672 million tonnes. The export to South Korea decreased by 7% to 1.748 million tonnes while the export to China increased by 8.6% to 958,551 tonnes. The export to the Philippines increased by 23.7% to 320,951 tonnes. The export to Indonesia almost kept flat at 130,514 tonnes. The export was 60,028 tonnes to Vietnam and 56,567 tonnes to Taiwan.