Japan Major 5 Steels Plan to Raise Raw Steel Output by 20% in 2H

Japanese major 5 steel makers including Nippon Steel and JFE Steel plan to increase the raw steel output to 39.85 million tonnes in second half of fiscal 2009 ending March 2010, which represents near 90% of the peak in first half of fiscal 2008 and around 20% higher than first half of fiscal 2009. They try to meet higher demand for export and automobile. However, they concern slowing down for the demand in January-March.

Nippon Steel’s raw steel output could increase in second half of fiscal 2009 from the first half when the firm expects the steel shipment will reach 15 million tonnes in second half of fiscal 2009 from 11.47 million tonnes in first half year. The raw steel output in first half was 11.55 million tonnes, which was 4.1% lower than second half of fiscal 2008 and 30.3% lower than same period of fiscal 2008.

JFE Steel’s raw steel output was 12.01 million tonnes in first half of fiscal 2009, which was 8.6% higher than second half of fiscal 2008 and 22.5% lower than same period of fiscal 2008. The firm didn’t change the outlook at 6.5 million tonnes level of output in October-December and January-March due to the uncertainty for the market as the outlook in July while the output is quarterly 6.9 million as July-September.

Sumitomo Metal Industries expects 6.6 million tonnes of raw steel output in second half of fiscal 2009 compared with 5.07 million tonnes in first half. Kobe Steel expects around 3.5 million tonnes of output compared with 2.88 million tonnes in first half. Nisshin Steel expects 1.76 million tonnes of output in second half compared with 1.48 million tonnes in first half.