Pickled Sheet Share Ups for Japanese Top 3 Makers in F2008

Japanese 3 integrated steel makers, JFE Steel, Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Industries, upped their output shares of pickled steel sheet in domestic market in fiscal 2008 (Apr08-Mar09) compared with fiscal 2007. Meanwhile, the other 2 integrated steels, Kobe Steel and Nisshin Steel, lowered the shares. Domestic pickled steel sheet production totaled 18.69 million tonnes in fiscal 2008, decreasing by 15.7% or 3.48 million tonnes from fiscal 2007.

The share order didn’t change in fiscal 2008 from fiscal 2007; the top maker was JFE Steel followed by Nippon Steel, Sumitomo Metals, Kobe Steel, Nisshin Steel and Tokyo Steel Manufacturing.

JFE Steel’s share upped by 0.2 point to 36.6%. Nippon Steel’s share rose by 0.4 point to 32.8%. Sumitomo Metals raised the share by 0.7 point to 19.6%. These 3 makers expanded pickled steel sheet output for automobiles in the first half of fiscal 2008, utilizing new facilities introduced in previous year.

Kobe Steel’s production volume decreased by 21.2% year-to-year and Nisshin Steel’s by 50.7% in fiscal 2008. Kobe Steel’s output share lowered to 8.7% in fiscal 2008 from 9.3% in fiscal 2007. Nisshin Steel’s share lowered from 2.1% to 1.2%. Nisshin Steel’s sales ratio for automobile is lower than other integrated steels and, that is, the production was impacted by shrinkage of construction and wholesalers markets.

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing’s share rose by 0.1 point to 1.0%. The output volume increased by 0.2% year-to-year. The firm expanded pickled steel sheet sales for wholesalers with price advantage.