Japan Raw Steel Output Drops by 0.2% to 112.48M tonnes in 2005

Japanese raw steel output decreased by 0.2% to 112.48 million tonnes in 2005 from 2004, announced by Japan Iron and Steel Federation on Wednesday. The output was 4th high after 1973, 1974 and 2004. The output was higher under strong demand at home and abroad for the first half year than same period of 2004. The output kept the high-level for the full year though it decreased for second half when makers reduced output to cut commodity grade export to adjusting Chinese and Asian market and to reduce domestic sheet inventory. The converter steel output decreased by 0.8% to 83.63 million tonnes and the electric furnace steel output decreased by 3.1% to 28.85 million tonnes. The electric furnace output decreased by 0.8 percentage points to 25.6% of the total output. The carbon steel output decreased by 1.4% to 87.92 million tonnes in 2005 from 2004 while special steel output increased by 4.1% to record 24.56 million tonnes. The hot rolled steel products output decreased by 1.9% to 101.2 million tonnes in 2005 from 2004. The output reached 100 million tonnes for 3 consecutive years and was 5th yearly record. The hot rolled wide strip coil output was 44.03 million tonnes in 2005, which was 5th record output. The galvanizing steel output was 13.99 million tonnes, which was 3rd record. The hot rolled special steel products output was record 20.34 million tonnes, which renewed record for 4 years in a row. Japanese raw steel output decreased by 5% to 9.09 million tonnes in December from a year earlier, which decreased for 6 months in a row. The converter steel output decreased by 7.8% to 6.63 million tonnes while the electric furnace steel output increased by 3.5% to 2.47 million tonnes. The carbon steel output decreased by 5.7% to 7.07 million tonnes while the special steel output decreased by 2.2% to 2.02 million tonnes. The hot rolled steel products output decreased by 7.7% to 8 million tonnes in December from a year earlier. The carbon steel hot rolled steel products output decreased by 8.9% to 6.33 million tonnes, of which long products output decreased by 9.2% to 2.01 million tonnes and flat steel output decreased by 15.2% to 4.26 million tonnes. The special steel output decreased by 2.7% to 1.67 million tonnes.