Nippon Steel, JFE Steel Gain Cold Sheet Output Share in F2009

Nippon Steel and JFE Steel increased the cold rolled steel sheet output share in Japan in fiscal 2009 ended March 2010 from fiscal 2008. They increased the output when tinplate related export recovered in second half of fiscal 2009. However, Japanese cold rolled sheet output decreased by 1.5% to 21.93 million tonnes due to the global economy deterioration.

Nippon Steel’s cold rolled coil output share increased by 2.2 percentage points to 37.6% in fiscal 2009 from fiscal 2008 when the firm increased the output by 4.6%. The production share of JFE Steel, which increased the output by 0.1%, increased by 0.5 points to 32.6%.

All Steel makers stayed in same positions in the cold rolled sheet production share ranking in fiscal 2009 from fiscal 2008. However, other makers than Nippon Steel and JFE Steel reduced output and share. The output of Sumitomo Metal Industries and Toyo Kohan decreased by more than 10%. Sumitomo Metals’ output share decreased by 1.3 points to 8.9% due to the 14.3% lower output. Toyo Kohan’s share decreased by 0.3 points to 2.0% due to the 11.3% lower output.

Kobe Steel’s cold rolled sheet output share decreased by 0.3 points to 5.2% in fiscal 2009 from 2008 when the output decreased by 6.2%. Yodogawa Steel Works’ output share decreased by 0.1 point to 2.6% when the output decreased only by 4.3%, which showed the lowest drop of range among the 6 makers other than top 2 makers. Nippon Steel & Sumikin Coated Sheet Corporation’s output share decreased by 0.1 point to 1.8% when the output decreased by 6.9%.