Japan Iron and Steel Federation announced on Tuesday Japanese carbon steel order receipt decreased by 4% to 68.41 million tonnes in fiscal 2011 ended April 2012 from fiscal 2010, which decreased for the first time in 3 years. The export order decreased by 8.6% to 24.68 million tonnes due to historical high yen rate and Thai flood. The domestic order decreased by 1.2% to 43.73 million tonnes due to impact by the major earthquake. The total order is expected to be lower in fiscal 2012 due to uncertainty for demand in domestic shipbuilding and appliances along with severe competition with rivals in China and South Korea.
The domestic order decreased by 5.9% to 20.63 million tonnes from manufacturers in fiscal 2011 from fiscal 2010. The order increased by 2.7% to 10.45 million tonnes from construction and by 4.1% to 12.65 million tonnes from the dealers. The domestic demand decreased by 2.7% to 9.08 million tonnes from automobile in fiscal 2011 from fiscal 2010. The order decreased by 2.4% to 1.65 million tonnes from industrial machinery, by 11.7% to 4.87 million tonnes from shipbuilders and by 8.4% to 1.49 million tonnes from appliances. The total carbon steel order increased by 2.9% to 6.233 million tonnes in March from a year earlier, which increased for the first time in 6 months. The order increased by 3.2% to 3.936 million tonnes, which increased for the first time in 3 months, and by 2.5% to 2.296 million tonnes for export, which was first increase in 7 months.