Japan Major 5 Steel Raised Raw Steel Output by 2.1% in Nov

Japanese major 5 steel makers increased the raw steel output by 2.1% to 7.399 million tonnes in November from a year earlier to meet higher demand for high valued steel. The production share of Japanese raw steel output increases by 0.8 points to 73.2%. Kobe Steel reduced the output due to blast furnace relining in the month from a year earlier. The other 4 steels increased the output. Nippon Steel increased the output by 2.8% to 2.815 million tonnes increasing the domestic share by 0.4 points to 27.8%. JFE Steel increased the output by 4.1% to 2.55 million tonnes increasing the share by 0.7 points to 25.2% due to higher output both in East and West Japan works. Sumitomo Metal Industries increased the output by 3.8% to 1.125 million tonnes in November from a year earlier increasing the share by 0.3 points to 11.1%. Kobe Steel reduced the output by 12.4% to 588,000 tonnes decreasing the share by 0.9 points to 5.8% due to outage of Kobe works during the relining. Nisshin Steel increased the output by 4.6% to 319,000 tonnes increasing the share by 0.2 points to 3.2%.