Japan Hot Rolled Special Steel Output to Rise by 4.6% in April-June

Japanese production of hot rolled special steel products will increase by 4.6% to 5.554 million tonnes in April-June from same period of 2007, which represents increases for 3 quarters in a row, according to estimate by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The production is 2.3% higher than 5.428 million tonnes of demand forecasted by METI while the production decreases by 3.7% from January-March. The production for domestic market will increase by 4.5% to 4.033 million tonnes for April-June from same period of 2007 while the output for export increases by 4.8% to 1.52 million tonnes. METI expects the makers keep full capacity operation with strong demand for automobile and construction machinery while the demand industries’ activity is lower than January-March. METI expects the special steel output for domestic market increases by 10.4% for spring steel and by 8.2% for bearing steel while the output for export increases by 30.7% for bearing steel.