Japan Wire Rod Import Drops by 11% in 1H

Japanese wire rod import decreased by 11% to 125,000 tonnes in January-June from same period of 2007, according to Ministry of Finance. The import decreased by 9.4% to 97,600 tonnes from China and by 16% to 27,400 tonnes from South Korea. The import from the major 2 countries dropped. The import was low in the early part of the half year and was high in the late part mainly due to import from China. The import from China increased to 31,700 tonnes in May and 35,000 tonnes in June, which was as much as second half of 2007, after 16,600 tonnes in January and less than 10,000 tonnes in February, March and April. The import from China decreased due to reduction of export tax return and imposing export tariff by Chinese government and firm demand for other than Japan. The import increased due to tight supply in Japan. The import price increased in the half year. The import unit price was 95,200 yen per tonne from South Korea and 91,600 yen from China in June, which was 35% or 24,600 yen higher and 37% or 24,900 yen higher than the level at the beginning of the year. Japanese carbon steel wire rod price increased by 30,000-40,000 yen to more than 100,000 yen per tonne after 2 times of hikes while the import price increased by more than 30%. The import price is as high as domestic price though the import price was much lower than domestic price before. The import price move could impact on the domestic market in positive or negative.