Japan Major 5 Steels’ Raw Steel Output Rises by 4.1% in F2007

Japanese major 5 steel makers’ raw steel output increased by 4.1% to 89.96 million tonnes in fiscal 2007 ended March 2008 from fiscal 2006. Their share increased by 0.6 percentage points to 74.0% of the national output. Their pig iron output increased by 3.5% to 87.87 million tonnes when they tried to increase the supply of high valued steels with strong demand especially from manufacturers. Nippon Steel’s raw steel output increased by 4.6% to 33.63 million tonnes in fiscal 2007 from fiscal 2006 increasing the share by 0.4 points to 27.7% of national output. The pig iron output increased by 4.2% to 31.92 million tonnes. JFE Steel’s raw steel output increased by 5.1% to 30.52 million tonnes in fiscal 2007 from fiscal 2006 increasing the share by 0.4 points to 25.1%. The pig iron output increased by 3.1% to 30.65 million tonnes. Sumitomo Metal Industries increased the pig iron output by 1.9% to 13.3 million tonnes in fiscal 2007 from fiscal 2006. Kobe Steel increased the pig iron output by 3.8% to 8.36 million tonnes. Nisshin Steel increased the pig iron output by 5.5% to 3.64 million tonnes.