Japan Carbon Steel Import Hits 300,000T for 5 straight months

Japanese carbon steel import increased by 5.7% to 305,042 tonnes in August from a year earlier, announced by Japan Iron and Steel Federation on Monday. The import decreased by 14.3% from July but it exceeded 300,000 tonnes for 5 months in a row when the distributors and users purchased more import steel in spring under tight domestic supply. The import in January-August decreased by 1.4% to 2.547 million tonnes from the same period of last year. The special steel import decreased by 23.5% to 17,474 tonnes and the secondary products import decreased by 9.4% to 45,205 tonnes in August from a year earlier.The H-beam import increased to 90,377 tonnes in August, which was almost twice of a year earlier level. The plate import increased by 41.2% to 23,459 tonnes. The hot rolled sheet import increased by 9.3% to 140,563 tonnes. The cold rolled sheet decreased by 7.6% to 77,181 tonnes. The galvanized sheet increased by 2.0% to 30,788 tonnes.In January-August, the plate import increased by 10.7% to 162,088 tonnes year-to-year. The hot rolled sheet import increased by 0.4% to 1.152 million tonnes. The cold rolled sheet import increased by 0.3% to 641,850 tonnes. The galvanized sheet import decreased by 4.6% to 241,955 tonnes.The total steel import increased by 4.2% to 17,779 tonnes from South Korea in August from a year earlier. The import from Taiwan decreased by 21.6% to 53,683 tonnes. The import from China increased by 41.6% when Chinese steel makers increased the export in July and August. Japanese source said the import from China could increase more when the makers shift to export aggressively when Chinese government tries to keep steel price low level as a part of fight against inflation.