Japan's aluminium imports up marginally y-o-y, exports down in H1CY22

Japan's aluminium imports increased y-o-y in the first half of CY22 (January-June 2022) compared to the same period last year, as per customs data maintained with SteelMint. However, its exports of the material saw a marginal drop in the period under review.

Imports up 3% y-o-y

The country's aluminium imports stood at 1.64 million tonnes (mnt) in H1CY22 as against 1.59 mnt in H1CY21. The largest share of imports was of semi-finished aluminium (unwrought aluminium - alloy, non-alloyed, and others of HS code 760120, 760110, and 7603 respectively) followed by finished flat (foils, pipes/tubes, and plates/sheets and strips of HS code 7607, 7608, and 7606), aluminium scrap (HS code 7602), finished long (bars/rods/profiles and wire of HS code 7604 and 7605) and others (HS code 7609 to 7616).

The key import destinations were Russia (236,342 t), the UAE (234,311 t), China (218,546 t), Australia (189,673 t) and Saudi Arabia (88,333 t).

Exports drop by 2%

Japan's aluminium exports witnessed a marginal drop of 2% to 380,013 t in H1CY22 in comparison to 389,131 t in the same period last year, according to SteelMint's customs data.

The largest share in exports was of aluminium scrap followed by finished flat, finished long, semi-finished, and others.

During H1CY22, China remained the top importer of Japanese aluminium at 123,697 t, followed by South Korea at 60,870 t, Thailand at 57,684 t, Malaysia at 46,676 t, and USA at 26,612 t. Exports to other nations stood at 64,475 t in the period under review.