Japan Major 5 Steels’ Raw Steel Output Rises by 7.4% in January

Japanese major 5 steel makers’ raw steel output increased by 7.4% to 7.608 million tonnes in January from a year earlier when they kept full capacity operations to meet firm demand at home and abroad. Their output represented 75.6% of Japanese output and the rate increased by 0.6 percentage points. Nippon Steel’s output increased by 3.0% to 2.807 million tonnes in January from a year earlier and the share in Japan decreased by 0.9 points to 27.9%. JFE Steel’s output increased by 10.4% to 2.565 million tonnes and the share increased by 0.9 points to 25.5%. Sumitomo Metal Industries’ output increased by 2.1% to 1.176 million tonnes in January from a year earlier and the share decreased by 0.5 points to 11.7%. Kobe Steel’s output increased by 8.4% to 698,000 tonnes and the share increased by 0.1 point to 6.9%. Nisshin Steel’s output increased by 50.9% to 362,000 tonnes and the share increased by 1.1 point to 3.6%. Nisshin Steel increased the output widely from a year earlier when the firm reduced the output due to trouble at blast furnace in Kure works. Nippon Steel’s Kimitsu works increased the output by 7.6% to 874,000 tonnes in January from a year earlier running at near annual 10 million tonnes while Oita works’ output increased by 3.3% to 777,000 tonnes. JFE Steel’s West Japan works increased the output by 8.3% to 1.779 million tonnes and the East Japan works increased the output by 15.4% to 786,000 tonnes.