Japan cement exports totalled 627,000t in January 2005, down 18.5 per cent year-on-year, the Japan Cement Association (JCA) said on March 1, 2005.  The figure marked a year-on-year decrease for the second consecutive month. Japan’s overall cement exports were influenced negatively mainly by the decrease in exports to China. Japan exported a total of 46,000t of cement to China in January 2005, down 78.8 per cent year-on-year.  On the other hand cement exports to South Korea marked a 2.1-fold year-on-year increase to 107,000t  Cement shipments in Japan went down by 4.7 per cent to 4.05Mt in January 2005, marking a year-on-year decrease for the second straight month.  Japan’s cement exports in the period April 2004 to January 2005 totalled 8.52Mt, up 3.6 per cent compared to the corresponding period in the previous year.