Japan Carbon Steel Export Drops by 37% in 1H

Japanese carbon steel export decreased by 37.0% to 8.704 million tonnes in January-June from same period of 2008, announced by Japan Iron and Steel Federation on Monday. Slower Asian demand impacted on the volume. The special steel export decreased by 38.4% to 1.867 million tonnes and the processed steel export decreased by 47.1% to 192,000 tonnes.

The export decreased by 7.0% to 1.584 million tonnes for plate steel in January-June from same period of 2008. The export decreased by 35.7% to 2.421 million tonnes for hot rolled wide strip, by 38.4% to 1.002 million tonnes and by 53.3% to 1.26 million tonnes.

The carbon steel export including pig iron and ferroalloy decreased by 22.6% to 2.607 million tonnes in January-June from same period of 2008. The export decreased by 28.9% to 1.811 million tonnes for China and by 58.4% to 263,000 tonnes for Taiwan.

The carbon steel export increased by 30.8% to 1.748 million tonnes in June from May due to higher demand from Asian countries. The volume was 21.1% lower than a year earlier but the year to year decrease gets narrower month by month.