Japan Raw Steel Output Increases for 21 Consecutive Months

Japanese raw steel output increased by 6.5% to 9.8 million tonnes in February from a year earlier, which represented year-to-year increase for 21 months in a row, announced by Japan Iron & Steel Federation on Wednesday. The output was record high as February over 9.237 million tonnes in 1980 due to strong demand from domestic and overseas markets, mainly from manufacturing industries. The output increased by 3% to 110.73 million tonnes for 11 months by February 2008. Annual output is expected to hit new record through fiscal 2007 ending March 2008 over 120.01 million tonnes in F1973.Converter steel output increased by 8.5% to 7.291 million tonnes in February from a year earlier while electric furnace steel increased by 1.2% to 2.517 million tonnes. Electric furnace steel output represented year-to-year increase for the first time since December 2007 thanks to export expansion including semi-finished steel though domestic demand was slow impacted by new Japanese building standard law.Carbon steel output increased by 7.1% to 7.569 million tonnes in February from a year earlier. Special steel output increased by 4.8% to 2.24 million tonnes.Hot rolled steel products output increased by 7.4% to 8.956 million tonnes including special steel in February from a year earlier. Hot rolled carbon steel products increased by 7.6% to 7.099 million tonnes, among which long products decreased by 2.6% to 1.892 million tonnes while flat steel increased by 11.6% to 5.137 million tonnes.Carbon steel wide strip output, the largest item in volume, increased by 12.5% to 3.946 million tonnes in February from a year earlier, which showed year-to-year increase for 21 months in a row. Carbon steel plate increased by 12.2% to 1.121 million tonnes, which showed year-to-year increase for 16 months. H-beam increased by 4.7% to 385,000 tonnes, which represented year-to-year increase for the first time in 4 months while small bar decreased by 8.5% to 860,000 tonnes.