In July, Japan’s exports of carbon steel finished products declined for the first month by 19.1% on year to about 1.59 million tonnes after four consecutive months of on-year rises, according to the data released by Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on August 31. Sources attributed the decline to softening global market prices.
Japan’s July exports were also down 20% on month and took the total over January-July to approximately 12.8 million tonnes, up 0.3% on year. Nevertheless, the volume in July was the second-lowest so far this year, the data showed.
A Tokyo-based steel trader observed that July exports were mostly booked around May, when overseas market prices had weakened and become unattractive for Japanese suppliers.
“Japanese Yen was weak in May and it had lent some support to Japanese exports. But by then, overseas market prices were so low that even the depreciation of Yen couldn’t cover the decline,” he explained.
He also added that the decline in July must be partially due to the low demand season in Southeast Asia.
Among the total exports in July, hot-rolled coil (HRC) – Japan’s largest export item –declined 10.1% on year and 12% lower on month to 766,903 tones, marking the first time to below 800,000 tonnes this year.
“HRC exports were extremely low last month, so we could tell that Japanese mills had been stepping back from their exports,” he said. In contrast, Japan’s HRC exports in March and May had reached above 1 million tonnes.
By country, South Korea was the largest buyer of Japanese carbon steel in July, importing 296,002 tonnes, down 10.5% on year and 17.3% lower on month; Thailand purchased 242,344 tonnes from Japan, down 24.2% on year and 6.2% lower on month. And China received 184,742 tonnes of Japanese carbon steel, down 32.8% on year but 2.1% higher on month, according to the JISF data.
Written by Yoko Manabe, yoko.manabe@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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