Japan Special Steel Electric Furnaces Gain Raw Steel Share in F2010

Japanese electric furnace steel makers increased the production share by 0.5 percentage point to 22.3% of Japanese raw steel production in fiscal 2010 ended March 2011 from fiscal 2009 when the special steel makers’ production increased for manufacturing industry. Japanese raw steel production increased by 15.0% to 110.79 million tonnes due to strong demand for export for Asia and domestic manufacturing industry. Despite the major earthquake in March, the production increased to more than 100 million tonnes for the first time in 2 years or slightly more than 90% of the production level before Lehman Shock.

Japanese top 6 steel makers kept the positions in the crude steel production ranking in fiscal 2010 as fiscal 2009. The special steel makers increased the share. Daido Steel was 7th position compared with No.9 in fiscal 2009. Sanyo Special Steel got into top 10. The carbon steel making electric furnaces reduced the share. JFE Bars & Shapes and Kyoei Steel got lower rankings.

Nippon Steel raised the production share by 0.7 percentage points to 29.8% of Japanese raw steel production in fiscal 2010 from fiscal 2009. The production increased by 17.7% to 32.99 million tonnes. JFE Steel dropped the share by 0.8 points to 26.0% while the production increased by 11.5% to 28.8 million tonnes. Sumitomo Metal Industries dropped the share by 0.5 points to 11.6% due to output suspension at Kashima works after the major earthquake while the production increased by 10.7% to 12.9 million tonnes. Kobe Steel and Nisshin Steel raised the share by 0.1 point to 6.9% and 3.5% respectively. The production increased by 15.7% to 7.6 million tonnes for Kobe Steel and by 15.1% to 3.82 million tonnes for Nisshin Steel.

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing raised the production share by 0.1 point to 2.1% in fiscal 2010 from fiscal 2009. JFE Bars & Shapes and Kyoei Steel dropped the share by 0.1 point to 1.4% and 1.3% respectively.