According to monthly statistics from the Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry, Japan's steel industry bought a total of 2,448,000 tonnes of locally available ferrous scrap in April 2011, down by 7.5% YoY.

Of the total, carbon steel scrap accounted for 2,306,000 tonnes, down by 7.2% YoY, alloy steel scrap 102,000 tonnes, down by 3.3% YoY and pig iron scrap 40,000 tonnes, down by 28.0% YoY.

Of home arisings in April 2011, carbon steel scrap accounted for 768,000 tonnes, down by 3.1% YoY; alloy steel scrap 122,000 tonnes, up by 10.5% YoY and pig iron scrap 32,000 tonnes, up by 24.1% YoY.

The Japanese steel industry consumed a total of 3,155,000 tonnes of ferrous scrap for steelmaking in April 2011, down 1.6% from a year ago. In the breakdown by steelmaking furnaces, LD converters consumed 884,000 tonnes of carbon steel scrap, down by 17.7% YoY; 53,000 tonnes of alloy steel scrap, up by 6.1% YoY and 21,000 tonnes of pig iron scrap, up by 1.4% YoY. Electric arc furnaces consumed 1,979,000 tonnes of carbon steel scrap, up by 6.9% YoY; 178,000 tonnes of alloy steel scrap, up by 11.9% YoY and 39,000 tonnes of pig iron scrap, down by 21.5% YoY.

At the end of April 2011, ferrous scrap stocks at domestic steelworks totaled 2,625,000 tonnes as carbon steel scrap, up by 0.4% YoY; 391,000 tonnes as alloy steel scrap, up by 21.4% YoY and 198,000 tonnes as pig iron scrap, down by 6.6% YoY.