Japan 5 Major Steels’ Raw Steel Output Rises by 4.2% in F2006

Japanese 5 integrated steel increased the raw steel output by 2.9% to 7.53 million tonnes in July from the same month of last year. Each maker kept high production due to good steel demand for mainly high grade products in domestic and overseas market.The production share of integrated steels increased to 75.3% by 1.0 percentage points.Nippon Steel increased the output by 4.4% to 2.84 million tonnes in July from a year ago, and increased the production share by 0.8 points to 28.4%.JFE Steel increased the output by 3.8% to 2.55 million tonnes, and increased the production share by 0.5 points to 25.5%.Sumitomo Metal Industries reduced the output by 4.0% to 1.1 million tonnes, which decreased the share by 0.7 points to 11.0% when new blast furnace in Kashima works gradually started the operation. Kobe Steel increased the output by 9.2% to 700,000 tonnes, which increased the share by 0.5 points to 7.0%. Nisshin Steel decreased the output by 3.7% to 330,000 tonnes, which decreased the share by 0.2 points to 3.3%.