Japan Steel Export Increases by 67% in May

Japanese steel export increased by 67.0% to 3.575 million tonnes in May from a year earlier, announced by Ministry of Finance on Wednesday. The export represented year-to-year plus for 10 consecutive months. Compared with April, the export increased by 3.1%. Japanese steel makers raised the export price and, as a result, the averaged export price surged. Japanese manufacturing industry continues high operations at overseas for automobiles and construction machines. Japanese steel export is expected to keep high volume in June.

The export totaled 18.11 million tonnes for January-May, increasing by 67.7% from the same period of 2009. The export could reach 43.5 million tonnes per year at the present pace, higher by 14% than the record in 2008. Averaged export price surged by 4,394 yen or 5.1% to 90,258 yen per tonne in May from April.

The export increased by 1.5% to Asian and NIES countries while increased by 26.9% to ASEAN countries in May from the previous month. Meanwhile, the export decreased by 9% to China.

Japanese steel import increased by 2.3 times in May from a year earlier while decreased by 7.9% from April. The import from Russia decreased by 71.8% compared with the previous month. The import from China increased by 10% and the import from Asian and NIES countries increased by 15.2%. Averaged import price surged by 6,555 yen or 6.8% to 102,859 yen per tonne in May from April while the unit price from China lowered by 2,639 yen or 2.4% to 107,745 yen.