Higher Japan Carbon Steel Order in February

Japanese carbon steel order receipt increased by 0.4% to 6.036 million tonnes in February from a year earlier, which increased for 3 months in a row, announced by Japan Iron and Steel Federation on Monday. The domestic order increased by 6.2% to 3.797 million tonnes, which increased for 4 months in a row. The order for export decreased by 8.2% to 2.239 million tonnes, which decreased for the first time in 2 months. The order would significantly decrease in March when users stopped the order mainly in eastern Japan after the major earthquake on March 11. Some of the users would cancel the order placed before March 10.

Japanese carbon steel domestic order decreased by 1.5% to 870,000 tonnes for construction in February from a year earlier, which decreased for the first time in 4 months. The order decreased by 16.0% to 166,000 tonnes for civil engineering while the building steel order increased by 1.9% to 504,000 tones. However, the building order increase was narrower than before.

The domestic steel order increased by 2.4% to 1.829 million tonnes for manufacturing in February from a year earlier, which increased for 2 months in a row. The order increased by 39.9% to 155,000 tonnes for industrial machinery. However, the order for electrical equipment decreased by 6.7% to 124,000 tonnes, which decreased for the first time in 15 months. The order decreased by 5.8% to 749,000 tonnes for automobile, which decreased for 6 straight months. The order decreased by 1.4% to 436,000 tonnes for shipbuilding, which decreased for the first time in 2 months. The order increased by 49.4% to 200,000 tonnes for downstream operation including processed steel wire products.