Japan Major 5 Steels’ Raw Steel Output Rises by 8.1% in February

Japanese major 5 integrated steel makers’ raw steel output increased by 8.1% to 7.243 million tonnes in February from a year earlier under strong demand for manufacturers and an extra bissextile day. Their share increased by 1 percentage point to 73.8% of total output in Japan. Nippon Steel’s output increased by 14.7% to 2.733 million tonnes in February from a year earlier increasing the share by 2 points to 27.9%. JFE Steel increased the output by 2.8% to 2.418 million tonnes and the share increased by 0.9 points to 24.6%. Sumitomo Metal Industries’ output increase by 7.6% to 1.094 million tonnes increasing the share by 0.2 points to 11.2%. Kobe Steel increased the output by 7.8% to 664,000 tonnes increasing the share by 0.1 point to 6.8%. Nisshin Steel increased the output by 0.6% to 335,000 tonnes increasing the share by 0.2 points to 3.4%.Nippon Steel increased the output by 9.2% to 877,000 tonnes at Kimitsu works and by 5.1% to 744,000 tonnes at Oita works in February from a year earlier. JFE Steel increased the output by 2.3% to 1.75 million tonnes at West Japan works and by 3.9% to 712,000 tonnes at East Japan works. They increased the output with ongoing expansion to meet higher demand for high valued steel products.