Japan Steel Orders Drop by 33% in November

Japanese steel makers’ order receipt decreased by 33.2% to 4.591 million tonnes in November from a year earlier, announced by Japan Iron and Steel Federation on Friday. The order volume hit the level as low as November 1970 and decreased for 4 consecutive months after world financial crisis. The order volume decreased by 26% to 3.54 million tonnes from domestic customers and by 51.4% to 953,000 tonnes from offshore buyers.

The orders shrank by 24.6% to 1.573 million tonnes from domestic manufacturers in November from a year earlier, which declined for 4 consecutive months. The order decreased by 32.4% to 720,000 tonnes from automobile industry, by 18.6% to 142,000 tonnes from electric machinery and by 39.6% to 133,000 tonnes from industrial machinery, while the order increased by 1.1% to 428,000 tonnes from shipbuilding. The order receipt from constructions decreased by 25.3% to 870,000 tonnes, down by 26.1% to 463,000 tonnes form buildings and by 27.8% to 207,000 tonnes from civil works.

The order decreased by 45% to 914,000 tonnes for hot-rolled coil, by 7.5% to 992,000 tonnes for plate, by 31.5% to 588,000 tonnes for rebar and by 32.2% to 232,000 tonnes for H-beam. The order for common steels became below 5 million tonnes though which had kept over 6 million tonnes since August.

Japanese manufactures such as automakers and construction machine makers revised down their output plans in sequence. Steel export market is getting worse. A Japanese integrated steel maker source said the order volume for common steels keeps downward since December.See attached table.