Japan Raw Steel Output Hits Record in 2007

Japanese raw steel output increased by 3.4% to record 120.2 million tonnes in 2007 from 2006 topping former record 119.32 million tonnes in 1973, announced by Japan Iron and Steel Federation on Monday. The output increased with strong demand at home and abroad. The converter steel output increased by 3.8% to 89.24 million tonnes, which was third high and the electric furnace steel output increased by 2.3% to 30.96 million tonnes. The raw steel output keeps high level when the domestic makers try to ship more semi-finished steel for offshore market with lower building domestic demand due to very slow building activity. The output increased by 3.7% to 94.06 million tonnes for carbon steel and by 2.4% to 26.14 million tonnes for special steel in 2007 from 2006. The special steel output renewed the record for 6 years in a row. The hot rolled steel products output increased by 3.9% to 108.2 million tonnes in 2007 from 2006, which reached 100 million tonnes for 5 years in a row and topped former record 104.71 million tonnes in 1990. The special steel hot rolled products output renewed the record for 6 years in a row. The hot rolled wide strip and galvanizing steel output hit all time high. Japanese major 5 steel makers’ raw steel output increased by 3.8% to 88.73 million tonnes in 2007 from 2006 when they tried to ship high valued steel products more to meet strong demand. Their share increased by 0.3 percentage points to 73.8% of Japanese output. Nippon Steel’s output increased by 1.8% to 32.85 million tonnes in 2007 from 2006 when the firm expanded the blast furnace capacity and ferrous scrap consumption. JFE Steel also increased the output by 6.8% to 30.25 million tonnes. Sumitomo Metal Industries’ output increased by 1.4% to 13.5 million tonnes. The output increased by 4.3% to 8.02 million tonnes for Kobe Steel and by 7.2% to 4.11 million tonnes for Nisshin Steel. The output increased by 6.6% to 10.53 million tonnes for Kimitsu works of Nippon Steel in 2007 from 2006. The output increased by7.2% to 21.41 million tonnes for West Japan works of JFE Steel.