Japan Steel Export Hits Record in 1H 2010

Japanese steel export hit record 21.849 million tonnes in January-June, which was 60.8% higher than same period of 2009 and exceeded former record of 20.02 million tonnes in first half of 2008, announced by Ministry of Finance on Monday. The export to Asia increased by 59.9% from same period of 2009 and represented 84% of total volume. The export especially increased for Asian Newly Industrializing Economies and Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The export volume represented around 40% of Japanese raw steel output when growing Asian demand supported Japanese steel operation. However, the export could decrease in the second half of the year under uncertain factors including Chinese inventory adjustment and European financial issues.

Worldwide steel demand recovers from the beginning of the year from plunge after Lehman shock. Japanese steel export to Asian NIES increased by 47.3% in January-June from same period of 2009. The export to ASEAN increased to 2.1 times, which was the largest gain except for small export to Russia. The export to China increased by 35.8% and the export represented 17% of the total export. The averaged export unit price decreased by 16% to around 83,200 yen per tonne while the export value increased by 34.4% to 1.818 trillion yen.

Chinese economy entered into adjustment both for manufacturers and construction industry since spring. However, Japanese steel export to China increased by 13.6% to 687,000 tonnes in June from May. Japanese steel export hit record 3.827 million tonnes as June, which increased by 7.0% to from May and increased for 11 months in a row.

Japanese steel import increased by 88.7% to 3.384 million tonnes in January-June from same period of 2009. The averaged unit price decreased by 24% to 104,557 yen while the import value increased by 44%. The import increased by 87.9% to 2.52 million tonnes from Asia, which represented 74% of total import. The import increased to 2.3 times from China and by 70.3% from Asian NIES.