FOCUS: Lucrative Japan HRC exports to Americas continue to heat up scrap prices

A healthy price arbitrage for Japanese hot-rolled coil producers to export into steel markets in the Americas has enabled these mills to keep raising their steel scrap buying prices in recent months, sources told Fastmarkets.

Japanese HRC exports to the Americas totaled 1.36 million tonnes in January-August 2021 under HS codes 7208 and 722530, up by 37.6% year on year, according to statistics from Japan's Ministry of Finance. HRC exports from Japan across the globe came to 10.58 million tonnes over the January-August period, up by 2.0% year on year.
The largest market for Japanese exports in the Americas was Mexico, with Japan shipping 660,737 tonnes of material to the North American nation in the first eight months of 2021, up by 72.9% year on year. Exports to the United States totaled 175,036 tonnes in the same period, up by 37.6% year on year.
Although sales to the Americas have represented only around one-tenth of overall Japanese sales volumes, these deals have been particularly lucrative to Japanese producers.
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