According to statistics released by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF), Japan’s steel imports totaled 8.04 million tons in 2012, falling by 3.1% from a year ago.
Among them, 4.46 million tons were at carbon steel, down slightly by 0.5% year on year.
In addition, the imports accounted for 10% of the country’s total consumption of 43.3 million tons.
In 2012, China’s HRC exports to Japan slumped by 30% from a year ago to 82,400 tons.
Besides, the country’s imports of heavy plates rose by around 10% to 513,200 tons, including 450,000 tons from Korea and 279,000 tons were from Korea, rising by 22% and two folds year on year respectively.