Posted on 03 Jul 2023
Japanese iron and steel exports rebounded significantly in May and hit an 11-month high. Meanwhile imports remained choppy, recovering only half of April’s decline on a month-on-month basis, according to data announced by the Japan Iron & Steel Association (JISF).
The country exported 3.02 million tonnes of iron and steel products in May, up 13.2% m-o-m and just 0.1% year-on-year, Kallanish notes. Year-to-date exports however, still lost 0.5% from a year ago to 13.79mt.
The y-o-y change trends for the main products were basically unchanged. Ordinary steel products saw an increase of 3.7% over January-May, but specialty steel exports were down 14.5%. Within the former, rails and seamless pipes and tubes still lead the growth, but bars, welded pipe and tubes, and tinplate performed worse than a year ago.
By country, May exports increased to four of the top five consumers, other than Thailand. Year-to-date shipments to Thailand were also lower y-o-y, leaving South Korea and USA alone to consume more Japanese steel.
Monthly imports also rebounded after a month of decline, but the increase was small. Japan imported 613,105t of steel in May, up 5.6% m-o-m and 1.6% y-o-y, and 3.06mt over January-May, an increase of 1.2% y-o-y.
Ordinary steel products contributed to the growth with a yearly gain of 12.7%, compared with specialty steel imports which saw a yearly decline of 22.5% in five months. Semis, plate, wide strip and galvanized sheet were popular in import markets during the period, but narrow strip, pipes and tubes attracted less buying interest.
Shipments from the top three suppliers, South Korea, China and Taiwan, still grew faster than overall on a y-o-y basis, for both one and five-month periods. The data implies that five-month imports from other countries slumped by 16.7% y-o-y, and only occupied a market share of 22.3%.
Source:Kallanish
