Japan Integrated Steels Crude Steel Output Increases in August

Crude steel output by Japanese 5 integrated steel makers increased by 3.2% to 7.299 million tonnes in August from a year ago. Japanese crude steel production keeps the increasing trend when the demand for high-grade steel products is strong for such as automobile and shipbuilding and the export turned to recovery, while the production decreased at Nisshin Steel due to a sudden operative accident. The 5 makers’ crude steel output accounted for 75.9% of Japanese total crude steel production in Japan in August, which decreased by 0.7 percentage points from a year ago when steel production by electric furnace steel makers increased more than integrated steels.Crude steel output increased by 2.6% to 2.793 million tonnes at Nippon Steel in August from a year ago, whose productive share decreased by 0.4 percentage points to 29.1 % for all Japan. The output increased by 6.8% to 2.418 million tonnes at JFE Steel, whose share rose by 0.7 points to 25.2%.