August Japan steel consumption dropped 6.9% m-o-m

Published: 16 Oct 2009 01:31:31 PST

October 16 MetalBiz--Although Japan steel production increased for four-consecutive-month, steel consumption decreased constantly. According to statistics from JISF, carbon steel production increased 8.5% m-o-m to 6.81mln tons in August this year, while the steel consumption was only 5.46mln tons, down 6.9% m-o-m and 14.6% y-o-y. Japan's domestic steel consumption was 3.4mln tons in August, down 2.8% m-o-m and 23.7% y-o-y. The steel consumption in manufacturing industry was still in low level with 1.64mln tons, a decrease of 26.7% y-o-y and 2.3% m-o-m. Thereinto, auto consumed 775,000 tons of steel, up 2.8% m-o-m, machinery manufacturing industry consumed 74,000 tons of steel, up 6.7% m-o-m, but the consumption in ship-building industry dropped 9% m-o-m, electronics manufacturing decreased 14.4% and container industry slipped 17.9% m-o-m.