Japan 5 Major Steels’ Raw Steel Output Rises by 5.8% in October

Japanese 5 integrated steel makers’ raw steel output increased by 5.8% to 7.378 million tonnes in October from a year earlier when they keep the high level output to meet firm demand for high valued steel products. The output share to the national output increased by 0.9 percentage points to 72.9%. Nippon Steel increased the output by 2.6% to 2.763 million tonnes in October from a year earlier. The output at Kimitsu decreased by 1% to 854,000 tonnes while the output at Oita increased by 4.2% to 777,000 tonnes. JFE Steel’s output increased by 12.4% to 2.49 million tonnes in the month from a year earlier when West Japan works increased the output by 17.3% to 1.764 million tonnes.Sumitomo Metal Industries increased the output by 0.2% to 1.099 million tonnes in the month from a year earlier when the Kashima works’ output increased by 2.3% to 659,000 tonnes. Kobe Steel’s output increased by 5.9% to 678,000 tonnes when the Kakogawa works’ output increased by 6.9% to 556,000 tonnes. Nisshin Steel’s output increased by 5.2% to 347,000 tonnes when the Kure works increased the output by 3.5% to 294,000 tonnes after the output loss due to water supply trouble. JFE Steel’s output share in Japan increased by 1.7 points to 24.6% in October from a year earlier while Nippon Steel’s share decreased by 0.5 points to 27.3%. Kobe Steel’s share increased by 0.1 point to 6.7% while Sumitomo Metals’ share decreased by 0.4 points to 10.9% and Nisshin Steel’s share was flat at 3.4%.