Nippon Steel and JFE Steel Up Hot Rolled Sheet Shares in 1H

Japanese hot rolled sheet steel output increased by 0.1% to 23.02 million tonnes in the first half of fiscal 2006 ending March 2007 from a year ago. Nippon Steel held the top production share and JFE Steel the second, both of which increased the share points thanks to the shipment recovery for export, while Sumitomo Metal Industries, Nisshin Steel and Kobe Steel decreased their share points due to the shipment concentration for their backyards.

As to electric furnace steel makers, Tokyo Steel Manufacturing reduced the output volume by 9.1% while Nakayama Steel Works increased by 14.9% in 1H of fiscal 2006 from a year ago. Tokyo Steel’s share decreased by 0.2 percentage points while Nakayama Steel increased by 0.2 points.

Nippon Steel’s share was higher by 5.1 percentage points than JFE Steel in 1H of fiscal 2006, while the gap was 4.6 points in 1H of fiscal 2005. The share orders did not change among 5 integrated steels, Tokyo Steel and Nakayama Steel.

Nippon Steel increased the output by 1.9% and increased the share by 0.7 points to 39.4% in 1H of fiscal 2006 from a year ago. JFE Steel increased the output by 0.8% and decreased the share by 0.2 points to 34.3%. Sumitomo Metals reduced the output by 4.5%, which was the widest reduction in the 5 major steels, and the share decreased by 0.6 points to 10.5%. The combined share of Tokyo Steel and Nakayama Steel was 3.7%, keeping flat from a year ago.