Japan's steel imports fall 12% YoY during January-June

A combination of weak home demand and trade protection cases helped produce a major decline in Japan's imports of ordinary carbon steel during this year's first half, say Japanese industry observers.

During June, imports of ordinary steel items reached 331,700 tonnes, lower by 8.7% from June last year and marking ten consecutive months of on-year declines, according to the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF). The June result took the January-June total to 2.04 million tonnes, lower by a large