Major Asian countries publish scrap import and export statistics

The latest statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance (MOF) indicate that scrap metal exports declined significantly during July this year. Exports of Japanese scrap amounted to 647,000 tons in July this year, down 24.5% from the previous month and 13.7% year on year.

South Korea became the largest importer of Japanese scrap within a month, with imports of 360,000 tons. Scrap exports to South Korea fell sharply by 16.4% over the previous year. In second place was China with 157,000 tons of imported steel scrap from Japan. Exports to China rose nearly 20.9% year on year.

Statistics released by the Korean authorities show that the country's scrap imports totaled 482,000 tons in July this year, down 5.3% from the previous month and down 13.7%. compared to the previous year.

Japan was the main exporter of scrap to Korea during the month. Imports of steel scrap from Japan totaled 289,000 tons, down 9.6%. Korean scrap imports from Russia totaled 90,000 tonnes during the month, down more than 12% on an annualized basis. Scrap imports from the US also declined, down 11.2% year-on-year to 60,000 tonnes for the month. Meanwhile, Korea's scrap steel exports increased significantly by over 60% during July 2016 to a total of 59,000 tons.

According to China's customs data, imports totaled 165,414 tons in July this year. Imports were down 2.4% from the same month a year earlier and 3.9% from a month earlier. The largest exporter of ferrous metal scrap to China in July was Japan. Imports from Japan totaled 148,069 tons, down slightly by 2.5% from the previous month. South Korea became the second largest source of imports for the month. China's ferrous scrap imports from South Korea totaled 5,648 tons. Other key exporters of ferrous scrap to China during July of this year were Belgium (1,961 tonnes), Hong Kong (1,918 tonnes), Australia (1,281 tonnes) and the Netherlands (979 tonnes).