Japan's Ministry of Finance released statistics on preliminary steel export and import in August 2011. According to this, export quantity of steel in August 2011 was 3,454,000 tonnes, down by 2.9% YoY and up by 4.0% MoM. Export amount in yen was JPY 315.763 billion up by 1.5% YoY.

While, import of steel in August was 655,600 tonnes, up by 8.6% YoY and down by 2.6% MoM.

By destination of export in August, export to Asia was 2,766,000 tonnes, down by 4.9% YoY. Of these, export to China was 594,000 tonnes, down by 0.4% YoY, that to Asian NIEs was 1,082,000 tonnes, largely down by 19.0% YoY and that to ASEAN was 1,007,000 tonnes, up by 6.5% YoY.

As for export to remote countries areas in August, export to Middle East was 159,000 tonnes, drastically up by 52.8% YoY, to Russia 25,000 tonnes, down by 33.1% YoY, to USA 150,000 tonnes, up by 17.1% YoY and to EU 37,000 tonnes, down by 20.1% YoY.

By import country area in August, import from Asia was 504,000 tonnes, up by 19.3% YoY. Of these, import from China was 99,700 tonnes, down by 4.7% YoY, from Asian NIEs 382,600 tonnes, up by 30.1% YoY and from ASEAN 9,000 tonnes, up by 20.5% YoY. Import from Russia was 27,800 tonnes, up by 0.8% YoY and from EU 11,000 tonnes, up by 22.7% YoY.