Japan Carbon Steel Order Hits First 6 Million Tonnes in 13 Months

Japanese carbon steel order receipt increased by 4.4% to 6.097 million tonnes in October from September, which reached 6 million tonnes for the first time in 13 months, announced by Japan Iron and Steel Federation on Friday. The order kept recovering driven by export after the order reached 5 million tonnes in June. The order increased by 2.0% from a year earlier, which was the first increase in 15 months.

The order for export increased by 11.6% to 2.461 million tonnes in October from September, which was the highest level since December 1977 while the order was 49.9% higher than a year earlier level.

The order for domestic market increased by 0.1% to 3.636 million tonnes in October from September while the order decreased by 16.2% from a year earlier. The order from manufacturers increased by 8.4% to 1.907 million tonnes. The order increased by 7.7% to 849,000 tonnes from automobile, by 7.9% to 126,000 tonnes from electrical machinery and by 9.3% to 487,000 tonnes from shipbuilding. The domestic order from construction decreased by 0.4% to 842,000 tonnes, which kept less than 1 million tonnes since November 2008.

The order for carbon steel hit 7.046 million tonnes in October 2007, which was the largest volume in 10 years. The order kept high level through July 2008 but the order decreased since August 2008 and hit less than 4 million tonnes per month in January-March 2009.