Japan Special Steel Demand Drops by 2% in January-March, METI

Japanese demand of hot rolled special steel products will decease by 2% to 1.691 million tonnes in January-March from same period of 2005, according to Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The demand increases by 2.4% from October-December. The domestic demand is higher than same period of 2005 due to higher production of automobile while production is firm as bubble economy period for industrial, construction and electric machinery. The demand increases for the 6 special steel items while the demand decreases for bearing steel and stainless steel. The export demand will increase for Southeast Asia under better inventory position in the area while export is flat for mechanical carbon steel and bearing steel. The demand in January-March increases from previous quarter for the first time in 4 quarters while the demand decreases from same period of previous year for 2 consecutive quarters. METI said automobile output will increase to 2.88 million units for finished car and to 1.9 million units for knockdown sets totaling 4.78 million units in the quarter. The special steel demand is 1.257 million tonnes for domestic market in January-March, up by 0.7% from previous quarter and up by 2.2% from same period of last year. The export demand is 434,000 tonnes, up by 7.9% from previous quarter and down by 12.4% from same period of last year. The domestic demand increases from previous quarter for 2 consecutive quarters and increases from same period of last year for 15 quarters in a row. The tool steel demand increases by 1.1% and spring steel demand increases by 1.9% from previous quarter. The stainless steel demand decreases by 0.9% from previous quarter. The export demand increases from previous quarter for the first time in 4 quarters and decreases from same period of last year for 3 quarters in a row. The export will increase by 8.2% for high tensile steel and by 11% for stainless steel from previous quarter.