For August, Japan’s steel exports had decreased for the second month by another 15.1% on year to 2.48 million tonnes, according to the preliminary data released by the country’s Ministry of Finance on September 15. Trading sources shared that softening overseas market prices had held Japanese mills from exporting.
The August result was slightly up by 1.1% on month though. A Tokyo-based trader explained that August exports were mostly flat on month because those were booked around June. “The price trend at overseas market had been unchanged from May, and mills were just taking a wait-and-see stance,” he said.
Among Japan’s total steel exports in August, Asian countries remained the top buyers of Japanese steel at 1.97 million tonnes, down 13.3% on year but 0.4% higher on month, among which ASEAN countries imported most steel from Japan, as Japanese mills have their downstream plants such as cold-rolling and galvanizing plants in the region and Japanese integrated mills continue supplying base feeds to them.
The trader shared that inquiries from overseas buyers to Japanese suppliers had increased lately, because they were trying to find alternative suppliers to cover the loss of expected slower exports by South Korean steel giant POSCO whose Pohang Works had been hit by a powerful typhoon and its rolling mills there had been halted.
“Most cargoes will be shipped from October, but some may be shipped shortly this month. So we expect Japan’s steel exports to increase in coming months,” he said.
As for Japan’s steel imports in August, the volume increased by 13.6% on year and 6.3% higher on month to 628,004 tonnes, and those from South Korea were at 258,846 tonnes, 18.6% higher on year and up 0.1% on month.
The volume from China was 104,714 tonnes, up 7.7% on year but down by 3.7% on month, and imports from ASEAN country were 82,274 tonnes, up 18.9% on year and soaring by 88.9% on month, the data showed.
A second trader in Tokyo attributed the rise in imports to the fact that Japanese steel prices didn’t soften much while overseas prices were declining, so overseas buyers were active to sell to Japanese buyers.
“The surge in imports from ASEAN countries may be because that supply in the area had become surplus and suppliers were trying to sell more to Japan,” he explained.
Japan’s steel trade data by product will be released by Japan Iron & Steel Federation on September 30, Mysteel Global notes.
Written by Yoko Manabe, yoko.manabe@mysteel.com
Edited by Zhenqi Yang, yangzhenqi@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
Leave a Reply