Japan’s ferrous scrap exports in December stood at 747,220mt, down by 2pc from 763,23mt in Dec 2019. From the preceding month, exports rose by 8pc. In 2020, exports stood at 9.39mn mt, up by 23pc from 2019 despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
The largest importer from Japan in December was Vietnam, where Japan exported 293,565mt of ferrous scrap, up from 251,545mt exported in Dec 2019. In 2020, exports to Vietnam stood at 3.41mn mt, up by 55pc from 2019.
South Korea was the second-largest importer from Japan with 256,924mt, down from 300,110mt in December 2019. In 2020, the country imported 2.96mn mt of ferrous scrap from Japan, down by 25pc from the prior year.
Most Asian countries faced container shortages and the resulting rise in freight charges on the US and European routes. Buyers in Bangladesh, therefore, focused their attention on small bulk imports from Japan, which was also competitively priced over US-origin material. Bangladesh became the third-largest overseas market for Japan, where it exported 87,680mt of ferrous scrap in Dec 2020, up from 58,849mt in Dec 2019. In 2020, Bangladeshi imports of ferrous from Japan surged by 173pc to 867,635mt.