Japan Ferrous Scrap Export Renews Full-Year Record by September

Japanese ferrous scrap export volume renewed the yearly record by September, according to Ministry of Finance. The export was 7.82 million tonnes for January-September 2009, which was higher than annual record of 7.65 million tonnes in 2006. Japanese ferrous scrap export increased significantly from January to early summer 2009 when Chinese users aggressively imported from Japan.

The ferrous scrap export decreased by 4.6% to 657,000 tonnes in September from August. The export decreased by 12.5% to 302,000 tonnes to China while the export increased by 1.9% to 341,000 tonnes to South Korea and declined by 78.0% to 7,000 tonnes to Taiwan. The export showed decrease for 4 months in a row.

The export was 4.23 million tonnes to China, 3.01 million tonnes to South Korea and 319,200 tonnes to Taiwan for January-September 2009. The export to the countries was more than from full year volume in 2008. The old export record to China was 3.46 million tonnes in 2005.