Posted on 06 Feb 2017
The recent trade statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (MoF) suggests marginal decline in country’s steel exports during the calendar year 2016. The exports during the year witnessed decline of 1.1% when matched with those during the year before. On the other hand, the country’s steel imports were up marginally by 1.2% in comparison with 2015.
According to data, the export quantity of steel products totaled 40.828 million tons (Mt) during the entire year 2016. The steel export by the country registered the third consecutive year of decline in 2016. The exports dropped by 1.1% over the prior year. The Japanese steel exports had totaled 41.3 million tons during 2015. The value of steel exports by the country in 2016 has dropped sharply by 22.5% over the previous year to 2,843.3 billion yens.
The key destination of Japanese steel exports during 2016 was the Asian region. The exports to Asia were down slightly by 0.2% over the previous year to 31.388 million tons, accounting for more than three-fourths of the total steel exports by Japan during the year. Among Asian countries, China accounted for bulk of imports. The Chinese imports of Japanese steel have totaled 5.443 million tons during the year, modestly higher by 3.0% when matched with the previous year. The imports of Japanese steel products by China recorded increase for the first time in two years.
Asian Newly Industrialized Economies (NIEs) imported 10.365 million tons of steel products from Japan. The exports to the region dropped by 1.9% year-on-year. The exports to ASEAN countries surged higher by over 6.9% during the year to total 13.259 million tons.
Among exports to remote regions, the Middle East accounted for 1.547 million tons of steel products import from Japan. The exports to the region dropped sharply by 17.1% over the previous year. Russia imported around 16,000 tons of steel products from Japan, declining sharply by 74.2% year-on-year. The imports by the US dropped considerably by over 16% to 1.976 million tons, whereas the imports by the EU region soared higher by almost one-third to 408,000 tons.
According to MoF data, Japan’s imports of steel products totaled 7.775 million tons during the entire year 2016, rising marginally by 1.2% when matched with the year before.
The primary exporter of steel products to Japan during the month was the Asian region. The imports from the region totaled 6.493 million tons, accounting for nearly 84% of total steel imports by Japan during the year. The exports from the Asian region increased marginally by 0.4% year-on-year. Among Asian countries, China accounted for 1477 million tons, dropping sharply by nearly 8% over the year. The imports from Asian NIEs were up by nearly 3.1% to total 4.648 million tons. The ASEAN region countries exported 198,000 tons, rising significantly by 42.0%.
Among imports from remote regions, those from the EU region declined marginally by 1.1% to 117,000 tons. Meantime, the imports from Russia were up sharply by 11% to 205,000 tons during the full year 2016.
Meantime, recent data published by the Japan Iron and Steel Federation (JISF) suggests that the country’s crude steel output increased from 8.585 million tons in Dec ’15 to 8.711 million tons in the same month last year. The cumulative crude steel output by the country recorded marginal decline of 0.3% from 105.134 million tons in 2015 to 104.772 million tons in 2016. Out of this, production of convertor steel totaled 81.513 million tons, rising marginally by 0.5% over the previous year. The production of electric furnace steel during 2016 totaled 23.259 million tons, falling by 3.3% over the previous year.
