[ferro-alloys.com]Japan's steel imports rose 11.6% month on month to 603,306 mt in September, but were largely unchanged from the year before, preliminary Ministry of Finance data released Thursday showed.

Ministry officials were unavailable for comment Friday.

A Tokyo-based trader said that despite the month-on-month increase in September, monthly imports had remained below 700,000 mt since June.

"The increase might also be temporary -- maybe delayed parcels affected by bad weather in August have arrived," he said.

Japan's steel imports from South Korea fell 16.7% on year and were down 2.8% on month at 261,612 mt in September, from China rose 43.2% on year and were up 57.8% on month at 113,672 mt, and from ASEAN countries were up 81.6% on year and up 41.4% on month at 34,093 mt.

Another trader said Japanese mills have been limiting supply for spot sales and concentrating instead on supplying their long-term customers.

"Some distributors are trying to fill their stocks with imported material, but South Korean mills have been limiting their exports, so distributors are securing material from China and ASEAN countries," he said.

Japan's average import price of steel was Yen 126,647/mt ($1,140/mt) in September, down Yen 9,813/mt from August, the data showed.

The second trader said the price decline was likely due to more commodity grade material arriving from China or ASEAN.

• [Editor:王可]