Japan's steel imports climb again

Japan's imports of ordinary carbon steel items during July jumped by 10.6% on year to reach 386,107 tonnes, representing the eighth successive on-year monthly increase, data published by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on August 31 showed. Total imports in July including ferroalloys and special steel items reached 646,702 tonnes, up 4% on year, according to the JISF numbers.

In tonnage terms, there seems little cause for the Japanese mills to be worried, given that the ordinary steel import total in July was just one-third of the mills' total ordinary steel exports that same month of some 1.92 million tonnes, Mysteel Global notes, higher by a large 20.8%