Japan Electric Furnaces’ Production Hits Rises for Straight 9 Months

Japanese electric furnace steel makers’ production decreased by 3.6% to 1.838 million tonnes in August from July, which decreased for 3 months in a row, due to the summer outage, according to Japan Iron and Steel Federation. However, the production increased by 7.9% from a year earlier, which showed year-on-year increase for 9 straight months through August. The electric furnaces’ weight for Japanese steel production increased by 0.2 points to 20.7% in August from a year earlier.

The carbon steel production of electric furnaces in August, which was 2.3% lower from July, showed year-on-year decrease for the first time in 8 months. The production was 1.247 million tonnes, which was 1.7% lower than a year earlier.

The special steel production of electric furnaces showed year-on-year increase for 9 months in a row through August. The output was 590,833 tonnes, which was 6.2% lower than July level and 35.8% higher than a year earlier. The production decreased to less than 600,000 tonnes in August for the first time in 4 months.