Japanese domestic shipment value of cemented carbide tools totaled 24.7 billion yen in July, year-to-year plus by 2.6% and month-to-month minus by 3.9%, according to Japan Cemented Carbide Tool Manufacturers’ Association. The shipment showed stable recovery from temporary down to 22.5-23.0 billion yen in April and May despite of month-to-month minus. The shipment maintained strong especially for indexable insert chip and export. Domestic production of cemented carbide alloy, the main material for tools, exceeded 500 tonnes for 2 months in a row.
The shipment of cutting tools, mainly used to manufacture automotive parts, totaled 18.6 billion yen in July, year-to-year plus by 2.9% and month-to-month minus by 3.1%. The shipment of indexable insert chip, the main item among cutting tools, kept very high volume in July to follow the monthly record 28.833 million chips in June 2011. Export represented 7.73 billion yen in the total shipment value, year-to-year plus by 4.8% and month-to-month minus by 0.6%. The export value kept highest level since July 2008 for 2 months in a row despite of super-strong yen trend. The demand is especially strong for indexable insert chip from emerging countries. Indexable insert chip represents around 75% in the total export value. As for domestic production of cemented carbide alloy, the output volume exceeded 500 tonnes for the first time since September 2008 in June and kept the high level in July. Japanese domestic production and shipment values of cemented carbide tools are likely to maintain steady since mother alloy production is increasing. Demand for cemented carbide tools is expected to increase for October-March compared with April-September along Japanese car makers’ productive expansion. See an attached table.