Japan’s steel exports down 3% in 2014

Paragraph entered by Atlantic migration, in order for SteelFirst articles to display correctly on Metal Bulletin.

Overseas shipments totalled 42.08 million tonnes last year, down from the 43.45 million tonnes exported in 2013, according to figures released late last week by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF).

Carbon finished steel products comprised the majority of the total volume, at 26.74 million tonnes, down 6% year-on-year.

However, exports of specialty steel products rose 15.4% over the same period to 8.84 million tonnes, while semi-finished steel fell by 10.9% to 5.30 million tonnes, JISF figures showed.

Ferro-alloys shipments dropped by 3.7% from 2013 volumes to 231,475 tonnes, while pig iron exports slumped 83% year-on-year to 48,359 tonnes.

Upward trend
In December alone, however, exports were up 7.9% on the year at 3.80 million tonnes. Carbon finished steel shipments rose 7.5% to 2.45 million tonnes, while exports of speciality steel increased by 16.5% to 809,806 tonnes.

This was the third rise in the last four months – exports rose 7.4% year-on-year in September and 8.4% in October, before falling 2.9% in November.

Last week, JFE Holdings, Japan’s second-largest steel producer, said its export sales have been improving due to the weak yen.