Japanese Carbon Steel Order Receipts Level Off at 5-6MT in November

Japanese steel makers’ order receipts for carbon steel products decreased by 10.5% to 5.455 million tonnes in November from October, announced by Japan Iron and Steel Federation on Friday. The volume became below 6 million tonnes again due to significantly low demand in Japanese construction market and month-to-month decrease for export orders. By year-to-year comparison, the order receipts increased by 21.4% because the demand had declined in November 2008 due to Lehman shock.

The order receipts were 6.097 million tonnes in October, which exceeded 6 million tonnes for the first time in 13 months. The volume turned down in August 2008 and stayed below 4 million tonnes during January-March 2009.

In November 2009, the order receipts from domestic consumers decreased by 8.3% to 3.333 million tonnes compared with October. The order receipts decreased by 8.2% to 1.751 million tonnes from manufacturing industry and by 10.5% to 754,000 tonnes from construction and civil engineering. The order receipts from manufacturing industry represented the first year-to-year plus, by 1.6%, in 16 months.

Among the orders from construction and civil engineering, the order receipts from building constructions were 366,000 tonnes, down by 13.3% month-to-month and by 21% year-to-year. The order volume hit the lowest since February 1986.

The order receipts for export was 2.122 million tonnes, down by 13.8% from October.