In November last year, Japan's iron and steel product exports amounted to 3.39 million metric tons, decreasing by 4.3 percent year on year and up by 2.5 percent compared to the previous month, while Japan's iron and steel product imports totaled 789,0464 metric tons, with a month-on-month increase of 11.3 percent and a year-on-year increase of 10.6 percent, according to the customs statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance.
In the first 11 months of last year, Japanese iron and steel product exports amounted to 39.93 million mt, rising by 3.4 percent, while Japanese iron and steel product imports came to 6.98 million mt, decreasing by 5.5 percent, both compared to the January-November period of 2012.
Regarding Japan's major iron and steel product export markets, in the first 11 months of 2013 the country's exports to South Korea totaled 7.27 million mt, down 4.2 percent, while exports to China decreased by 0.1 percent to 5.59 million mt, the export volume to Taiwan amounted to 3.55 million metric tons, up 10.9 percent, exports to Thailand totaled 5.06 million metric tons, up 2.6 percent, while exports to the US came to 2.14 million metric tons, decreasing by 5.3 percent, all compared to the same period of 2012.
In the January-November period of 2013, Japan imported 3.28 million metric tons of iron and steel products from South Korea, down 9.3 percent, it imported 1.16 million metric tons from China, down 11.8 percent, while imports from Taiwan rose to one million metric tons, increasing by 8.6 percent, all compared to the same period of 2012.
