Japan Special Steel Products’ Output to Drop 44.1% in January-March

Japanese production of hot rolled special steel products decreases by 44.1% to 2.536 million tonnes in January-March from same period of 2008, according to Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The production is 35% lower than October-December. The production drop is the widest level in the history both from year to year and quarter and quarter. The annual production decreases by 10.9% to 19.378 million tonnes in fiscal 2008 ending March 2009 from fiscal 2008, which is the first drop in 7 years.

The quarterly production is 10.2% lower than 3.585 million tonnes of estimated demand, which METI announced in December. The makers plan to reduce the production when automakers and other users reduce the operations.

METI sees the inventory increases in makers, distributors, processors and users due to longer lead time than carbon steel products. METI expects the makers’ aggressive production cut could improve the supply balance toward April-June period.

The production for domestic market decreases to 2.145 million tonnes in January-March, which is 48.5% lower than same period of 2008 and by 40.3% lower than October-December. The production for export is 1.075 million tonnes, which is 32.3% lower than same period of 2008 and 20.9% lower than October-December.