Nippon Steel Loses, Nisshin Steel Gains Cold Rolled Stainless Share in F2008

Nippon Steel group’s production share of cold rolled stainless flat steel decreased by 1.2 percentage points to 29.9% in fiscal 2008 from fiscal 2007 due to major production cut since late 2008. The production of the group including Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless Steel (NSSC) decreased by 28.4% to 399,000 tonnes while the national production decreased by 25.1% to 1.34 million tonnes.

Nisshin Steel’s production share of cold rolled stainless flat steel increased by 0.9 points to 24.8% in fiscal 2008 from fiscal 2007. The production decreased by 22.3% to 332,000 tonnes but the decrease was narrower than the national production drop. The top 2 makers represented 54.7% of the national production.

The third largest maker of JFE Steel, which reduced the production by 22.3% to 247,000 tonnes, increased the share by 0.7 points to 18.5% in fiscal 2008 from fiscal 2007. The share was flat for Nippon Metal Industry and Nippon Yakin Kogyo at 10.1% and 8.5% respectively despite of their lower production.