Japan Crude Steel Output Drops by 5% in June

Japanese Crude steel output decreased by 5.0% to 8.885 million tonnes in June from a year earlier, which decreased for 4 months in a row, announced by Japan Iron and Steel Federation on Wednesday. The output decreased due to slow demand for manufacturing including automobile and construction after the major earthquake in March. The output decreased by 1.8% from May. However, the daily output increased by 1.5% to 296,200 tonnes due to month-to-month recovery of car output. The output decreased by 0.9% to 54.071 million tonnes for January-June from same period of 2010.

The crude steel output of integrated steel makers decreased by 5.5% to 6.62 million tonnes in June from a year earlier, which decreased for 4 months in a row. The output of electric furnace steel makers decreased by 3.6% to 2.062 million tonnes. The output decreased by 0.3% and 6.7% from May, respectively.

The carbon steel output decreased by 4.3% to 6.944 million tonnes in June from a year earlier and the special steel decreased by 7.7% to 1.941 million tonnes. The output for 2 steels decreased for 4 months in a row.

Japanese crude steel output decreased by 4.8% to 26.367 million tonnes for April-June from January-March. The domestic demand is increasing in July. However, the export transaction slows due to higher yen exchange rate per US dollar. The output would not significantly increase when electric power saving could affect on the users’ operation rate.