Japan Carbon Steel Order Hits 38-Year Low in 2009

Japanese carbon steel order receipt decreased by 16.8% or 14.1 million tonnes to 60.87 million tonnes in 2009 from 2008, which represented the lowest level in 38 years, announced by Japan Iron and Steel Federation on Friday. The domestic order receipt decreased by 29.7% or 15.9 million tonnes to 37.76 million tonnes in 2009 from 2008, which represented the lowest level in 40 years while the order for export increased by 8.5% or 1.8 million tonnes to 23.1 million tonnes, which represented the highest level in 25 years.

The order receipt increased by 12.5% to 6.14 million tonnes in December from November, which became more than 6 million tonnes for the first time in 2 months. Despite the low domestic demand for construction, the export demand was firm. The order for export increased by 23.8% to 2.63 million tonnes in December from November, which represented the highest level in 33 years.

The domestic order receipt increased by 5.3% to 3.51 million tonnes in December from November. The domestic order increased by 0.8% to 760,000 tonnes for construction and increased by 7.9% to 1.89 million tonnes for manufacturing. The order for construction showed 9.4% year-on-year decrease in December. The order for manufacturing represented 16.8% year-on-year increase, which increased for 2 months in a row. However, the domestic order leveled off at around 3.5 million tonnes per month since July 2009.