Japan Electrical Steel Import Hits Record in January

Japanese import of electrical steel sheet hit the monthly record volume in January. The export expanded by 2.2 times to 6,076 tonnes in January from the previous month. By countries, the import jumped by 2.2 times to 3,791 tonnes from South Korea, which was the monthly record volume, while the import from Taiwan expanded by five times to 1,883 tonnes.

Japanese electric appliance makers increased electrical steel sheet import under extremely strong yen trend at below 80 yen per US dollar. However, the monthly import volume had hit the peak in July 2011 and decreased in November and December. In January, POSCO of South Korea and China Steel Corporation of Taiwan seem to have increased the export to Japan when Asian market price decreased while Japanese market price was relatively stable.