[ferro-alloys.com]Japan's stainless cold-rolled coil imports in June rose 6.8% year on year to 14,142 mt, data released last week by Trade Statistics of Japan showed. The June imports were down 0.5% from May.

"Imports of stainless CRC have been above 14,000 mt since April, so we are afraid it will soften the supply-demand balance in the spot market and not lift market prices, while we have been trying to shift previous hikes by producers to distributors," he said.

Since October 2017, Japan's largest stainless producer, Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless, raised its austenitic CRC prices by a total of Yen 70,000/mt ($629/mt), while those for ferritic CRC were lifted by Yen 35,000/mt.

Of the total June imports, those from South Korea increased 10.1% on the year and 9.4% from May to 11,201 mt. From China, the imports spiked 103.4% on the year but were down 31.9% from May to 1,005 mt, while those from Taiwan fell 21.6% year on year and 17.8% month on month to 1,803 mt.

Meanwhile, average landed prices of imported stainless CRC in June was Yen 270,493/mt ($2,463/mt), up Yen 19,954/mt from a year ago and up Yen 1,440/mt from May, according to the data.

The current market price for 304 grade CR sheet (2 mm thick) in Tokyo is around Yen 370,000/mt ($3,327/mt), up Yen 10,000/mt from a month ago, while 430 grade CR sheet (2 mm thick) is around Yen 270,000/mt ($2,428/mt), unchanged from a month ago, distributors said.

• [Editor:王可]