Japanese Carbon Steel Order Receipt Steadily Recovers in August

Japan Iron and Steel Federation announced on Tuesday Japanese carbon steel order acceptance totaled 5.801 million tonnes in August, which increased by 5.7% from a year earlier and represented first year-on-year increase in 6 months. The volume almost rebounded to the level as high as pre-earthquake. The order receipt from automotive industry increased by 4.2% to 912,000 tonnes, which represented first year-on-year increase in a year.

The order receipt for domestic market increased by 5.2% to 3.654 million tonnes in August, which represented first year-on-year increase in 6 months, while the order receipt for export increased by 6.5% to 2.147 million tonnes. Among the order receipt for domestic market, the order acceptance for manufacturing industry increased by 2.9% to 1.878 million tonnes, first year-on-year increase in 6 months, while the order acceptance for construction market increased by 3.8% to 796,000 tonnes.

Among manufacturing industry, the order receipt for car industry hit bottom at 442,000 tonnes in May and showed gradual recovery at 616,000 tonnes in June, 760,000 tonnes in July and 912,000 tonnes in August. The order acceptance for industrial machines increased by 5.9% to 144,000 tonnes. The order receipt for vessels increased by 0.1% to 407,000 tonnes while the order receipt for electric appliances decreased by 5.2% to 125,000 tonnes.

The order receipt for export kept above 2 million tonnes despite of underlying trend of ultra strong yen. The demand seems to have maintained stable along Japanese manufacturing industry’s output recovery at overseas after the Japan Earthquake.

The accumulative order receipt totaled 27.81 million tonnes for April-August, decreasing by 4.1% year-to-year.