Japanese makers’ shipment of cemented carbide tools totaled 24.254 billion yen in February, which was 0.6% lower than a year earlier level, while the value increased by 7.6% from January, announced by Japan Cemented Carbide Tool Manufacturers’ Association on Tuesday. The shipment value showed slight year-to-year minus for 4 months in a row due to slowing demand. The accumulative shipment for 5 months through February was 119.4 billion yen. The half-year shipment by March would become approximately 10 billion yen lower than the association’s forecast at 156.7 billion yen announced in early November 2011.
Cemented carbide tools are mainly used in car industry. Domestic car production is currently steady. Japan Machine Tool Builders’ Association recently announced Japanese order receipt value for machine tools was year-to-year minus in January and February, which is an indicator for cemented carbide tool shipment. Domestic production volume of cemented carbide alloy, which is the mother alloy for tools, also showed year-to-year- minus in January and February. Japanese cemented carbide tool shipment is unlikely to increase largely for a while. The shipment value of cutting tools showed almost year-to-year flat for 4 straight months by February. The shipment volume of indexable chip, which is the main item among cutting tools, kept year-to-year plus for 10 straight months by February. The annual shipment is expected to have reached record 300 million chips in fiscal 2011 ended in March 2011. However, the year-to-year plus range has been one-digit for late 5 months under slowing demand. Japanese cemented carbide tool export maintained steady for April-September 2011 mainly for indexable chips. The export turned below 7 billion yen per month in and after November. The export value was year-to-year minus for 3 months in a row until February.