Japan Accumulated Steel Hits First Drop in F2009

Japanese accumulated steel decreased in fiscal 2009 ended March 2010 from fiscal 2008, which was the first drop in 59 years, according to Japan Ferrous Raw Materials Association. The steel accumulation decreased by 310,000 tonnes in fiscal 2009 from fiscal 2008 while the accumulation increased by 5.39 million tonnes in fiscal 2008 from fiscal 2007. Higher steel export including indirect export contributed to the lower accumulation when domestic steel production and import decreased. The estimated accumulation was around 1.319 billion tonnes at end of fiscal 2009.

The steel production decreased by 10% to 86.778 million tonnes in fiscal 2009 from fiscal 2008. The import decreased by 14.1% to 6.343 million tonnes. The export increased by 3.3% to 67.655 million tonnes including indirect export and 8.971 million tonnes of ferrous scrap export. The domestic scrap consumption decreased by 21.9% to 25.773 million tonnes.

The negative factor for the accumulation was total 12.91 million tonnes in fiscal 2009 including 9.68 million tonnes of lower production, 1.04 million tonnes of lower import and 2.19 million tonnes of higher export. The domestic scrap consumption decreased by 7.21 million tonnes.

The accumulation increase was 9.55 million tonnes in fiscal 2007 due to higher steel export, lower steel import and higher domestic scrap consumption despite of higher steel production and lower ferrous scrap export. The accumulation increase was only 5.39 million tonnes in fiscal 2008, which was same level as 1950s, due to lower steel production under worldwide slow economy.

The association estimates obsolete scrap recovery was 24.03 million tonnes in fiscal 2009 when obsolete scrap represented around half of scrap export. The recovery rate for domestic total steel accumulation at end of fiscal 2008 decreased by 0.47 percentage points to 1.82% from previous year.