Posted on 03 Jan 2023
Japan's carbon steel exports to all destinations during calendar 2022 will almost certainly decline from last year's increase, reflecting the slowing global economy impacted by rising inflation, weaker consumer sentiment and supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19 resurgences.
Steel export data released by Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on December 28 for November showed that ordinary steel exports last month climbed for the first time in five months to 1.87 million tonnes, albeit by a tiny 0.4% from November last year.
Compared with October, the total was higher by 15.6%, but last month's uptick was not strong enough to significantly lift the overall January-November total which was down 3.4% from the first 11 months of last year at 19.6 million tonnes.
Failing a miraculous surge in ordinary steel shipments abroad this month, on an annualized basis the January-November record would translate to 21.38 million tonnes for the current calendar, Mysteel Global noted, lower by 3.4% from the CY'21 total of 22.13 million tonnes. Admittedly, it would represent an improvement on the 2020 result of 20.92 million tonnes.
When exports of special steel, pig iron and other commodities are added, the CY2022 total would come to 32.32 million tonnes, down on the 2021 overall total of 34.4 million tonnes, the JISF data suggested.
Addressing Japanese industry media last week, Takashi Hirose, executive vice president of Japan's largest steelmaker, Nippon Steel, described this year as "tumultuous" for the Japanese steel industry and warned that from a global perspective, conditions are changing rapidly and next year might prove similarly challenging.
"The world's major economies have shifted toward tightening their financial policies to curb inflation," he noted, adding that currency markets are fluctuating, and that the Russia-Ukraine conflict remains.
"China recently made a zero-COVID policy U-turn, which will certainly reactivate the economic activities but may lead to further (virus) spikes," he observed.
"In any case, we are in an era of significant changes, where we need to catch up with – and capture the essence of – what is going on, and address such changes appropriately," he advised.
Source:Mysteel Global
