Japanese domestic steel orders declined; exports edged higher

TOKYO (Scrap Monster): The domestic steel product orders in Japan recorded marginal decline during the first half of the current year. Meantime, government trade data suggests that steel exports by the country climbed higher during July, the latest month for which data is available.

The latest data released by the Japanese Iron and Steel Federation (JISF) indicates that the country’s domestic steel product orders including 4.41 million tons of special steel declined by 4.2% over the previous year. The ordinary steel products orders from Japan’s construction industry totaled 890,000 tons in June ’16, significantly down by 9.6% year-on-year. Orders from automobile industry witnessed marginal decline of 1.5% over the year to 1 million tons during the month. Shipbuilding industry orders for ordinary steel products were down 2.6% year-on-year to total 326,000 tons. The cumulative steel products orders during the first six months of the year dropped marginally by 0.7% over the previous year to 26.8 million tons.

According to Japanese Ministry of Finance (MoF), the country’s steel exports increased marginally during the month of July this year. Japan exported 355,000 tons of steel during July, rising marginally by 1.3% over the previous year. The steel exports by the country registered third consecutive month of increase in July. On the other hand, steel imports registered consecutive month of decline, falling by 4.5% over the previous year. The Japanese steel imports during the month totaled 579,000 tons.

The production statistics released by JISF indicates that the country’s crude steel production increased marginally by 0.5% year-on-year to total 8.886 million tons in July this year. The daily output capacity dropped marginally by nearly 2% from 292,000 tons in July 2015 to 286,000 this July. By furnace type, Japan’s production of converter steel was up marginally by 0.7% from the previous year to 6.970 million tons. The production from electric furnace too dropped marginally by 0.1% over the previous year to 1.916 million tons. By type, ordinary steel production edged higher by 1.3% year-on-year to 6.973 million tons. On the other hand, specialty steel output declined by 2.4% year-on-year to 1.913 million tons.

Also, the Japanese pig iron output has dropped slightly by 0.3% over the year to 6.938 million tons. The small bar output by the country totaled 692,000 tons during the month, down nearly 6% when matched with July 2015. The cumulative small bar production during the initial seven-month period of the year dropped 4.7% to 1.862 million tons.

In accordance with government data, the country’s heavy steel plate exports during June this year dropped sharply by 8.1%. Japan’s heavy steel plate exports totaled 249,521 tons. The main importer of heavy steel plate from Japan was China. The imports by China have dropped by 5.8% over the previous year to 66,614 tons. Korea was the second largest importer with 62,738 tons. The other primary importers were Taiwan (1,929 tons) and the US (654 tons).

The country’s steel pile exports have surged higher by over 46% during June this year to total 22,000 tons. The key importers of Japanese steel piles were China (10,000 tons), Taiwan (4,000 tons), Vietnam (3,000 tons) and Korea (1,000 tons). The cumulative steel pile exports during the initial first half of the year totaled 89,000 tons.