Japan Cemented Carbide Tool Manufacturers’ Association announced on Tuesday Japanese cemented carbide tool shipment will increase by 6.5% to 302 billion yen for fiscal 2011 ending in March 2012 from fiscal 2010, which reaches 300 billion yen for the first time in 4 years. The association expects the shipment would increase due to strong demand for industrial machinery and automobile in emerging countries including China and Southeast Asian countries. However, the annual shipment is 25.5% lower than the record of 357.2 billion yen in fiscal 2007.
The association expects the shipment increases by 7.1% to 111.9 billion yen for domestic order for second half of fiscal 2011 from same period of fiscal 2010. The shipment increases by 9.5% to 44.8 billion yen for export. The shipment increased by 5.8% to 103.7 billion yen for domestic order for first half of fiscal 2011 from same period of fiscal 2010. The shipment increased by 3.5% to 41.6 billion yen for export. The shipment was firm due to strong offshore demand despite the major earthquake impact on domestic market. The insert chips shipment was apparently the half year record. The cemented carbide alloy output increased by 10.7% to 2,987 tonnes.