Japan Steel Import Continues to Increase by 15% in January

Japanese carbon steel import increased by 14.5% to 296,889 tonnes in January from the previous month or recovered by 62.4% from a year earlier, announced by Japan Iron & Steel Federation on Friday. The import has gradually increased since February 2009. Japanese steel makers are concerned about the continuous import volume growth when yen exchange rate stays strong.

Japanese import of hot rolled sheet increased by 6% to 116,345 tonnes in January from December 2009. The cold rolled sheet import increased by 4.5% to 66,652 tonnes. The import increased by 3.7% to 32,042 tonnes for galvanizing sheet, by 2.8 times to 3,429 tonnes for H-beam, by 25.2% to 2,362 tonnes for steel bar, by 6.8% to 25,703 tonnes for wire rod and by 3.8 times to 30,983 tonnes for plate.

The total steel import from South Korea decreased by 1.4% to 172,764 tonnes in January from December while the import from China increased by 43.3% to 55,254 tonnes and by 19.8% to 51,889 tonnes from Taiwan.