Japan Major 5 Steels’ Higher Raw Steel Output in May

Japanese major 5 steel makers increased the raw steel output by 2.4% to 7.32 tonnes in May from a year earlier. Nippon Steel and JFE Steel expand the output by expanding steel making and downstream capacity to meet strong demand for high valued steel items at home and abroad. Sumitomo Metal Industries and Kobe Steel reduced the output temporally due to switch to new blast furnaces in May. The major 5 steels represented 71.9% of Japanese steel output, which decreased by 0.1 percentage point.

Nippon Steel’s raw steel output increased by 6.6% to 2.804 million tonnes in May from a year earlier. JFE Steel increased the output by 4.1% to 2.525 million tonnes. Sumitomo Metals decreased the output by 4.5% to 1.058 million tonnes and Kobe Steel decreased the output by 8.0% to 613,000 tonnes. Nisshin Steel increased the output by 1.0% to 318,000 tonnes.

Sumitomo Metals reduced the output when the Kashima works stopped the no.2 blast furnace and launched no.3 blast furnace in May. Kobe Steel also decreased the output when the Kakogawa works stopped the operation of no.1 blast furnace and started the no.2 blast furnace in May.See attached table.