Japan Wire Rod Products Import Increases by 35% in 2005

Japanese import of wire rod products increased by 35.2% to 119,747 tonnes in 2005 from 2004, representing increases for 4 years in a row, according to the Ministry of Finance Japan. The import increased sharply since last February due to the cheaper price than domestic price surged in a couple of years. The import increased to monthly 10,000 tonnes from 7,000-8,000 tonnes before February 2005.Japanese steel import dropped due to the quality problem under the easing supply after the higher import with limited domestic availability. However, the import of wire rod products increased by 20.7% in October-December from same period of 2004 keeping the higher import. A distributor source said the ailing civil work industry imports cheaper products despite of the quality problem though some import products have competitive quality to domestic products.