Exports of steel scrap from Japan soared by 22.7% year on year to 9.39 million tonnes in 2020, according to the East Asian country's customs department.
The total is the highest recorded since 2010 - Japan exported 9.40 million tonnes of scrap in 2009.
Japanese scrap exports were buoyed by growing demand in developing steelmaking nations such as Vietnam and Bangladesh last year, coupled with a
sharp drop in domestic demand in the first half of the year.
Japan - the world's third-largest steelmaker -
produced just 83.19 million tonnes of crude steel in 2020, down by 16.2% year on year compared with 2019, according to the World Steel Association.
The greater interest...