Japan Steel Export Increases by 6% to 3.68 Million tonnes in February

Japanese Steel export increased by 6% to 3.682 million tonnes in February from January, which rebounded after 3 months and hit monthly record high as February, according to Ministry of Finance. Steel demand maintained favorable from Asia despite of Chinese New Year holidays. By year-to-year comparison, the export increased by 8.6%. Overseas demand keeps strong but the export is likely to slow down in and after March when many steel plants temporarily stopped operations after Tohoku-Kanto Earthquake and yen exchange rate rose rapidly.

The previous record of February was 3.535 million tonnes in 2008. International steel market price maintained uptrend until mid February due to high raw material prices. Thus Japanese steel export average price surged by 2.4% to 86,061 yen per tonne.

The export to Asia increased by 3.5% to 2.948 million tonnes in February from January. The export to NIES decreased by 2.2% to 1.199 million tonnes since the export to South Korea decreased. The export to China kept flat at 606,000 tonnes while the export to ASEAN increased by 4.9% to 967,000 tonnes. As for Middle East, the export increased by 59.4% to 153,000 tonnes, which dropped in January due to antigovernment demonstrations.

Japanese steel import decreased by 6.9% to 543,247 tonnes in February from January, minus for 3 consecutive months. By year-to-year comparison, the import increased by 33.3%. The import from Asia decreased by 9% to 408,625 tonnes. The import from NIES decreased by 8.1% to 309,167 tonnes from. The import from China decreased by 12.9% to 68,103 tonnes. Average steel import price lowered by 7% to 108,337 yen per tonne.