Japanese Steel Makers will Reduce Steel Sheet Production for Domestic Market

Japanese integrated steel makers started to discuss reduced production of steel sheet for domestic users because the demand keeps slower that Japanese automobile production decreased by 3.8% in April from the same month of last year due to lower sales for domestic market and the building construction order was delay. Japanese inventory of hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated sheet steel for domestic shipment held by makers, distributors and processors increased to 4.07 million tonnes for 2 consecutive months at the end of April. They are elevating sense of vigilance for the supply and demand.Japanese automobile production decreased to 870,639 cars by 3.8% in April from the same month of 2006. At the same time, automobile sales decreased to 357,690 cars by 8.7%. Steel makers prospected automobile production at 11.6 million cars in fiscal 2007 at the ended of March 2008, but active production keeps slower than their forecast. As for the demand for building construction, the order form general contractors are decreasing due to revised building standard law. The demand for distributors keeps low. Steel makers don’t change their forecast which domestic demand keeps good condition in this year. However, they are concerning increased inventory when the demand is lower than their forecast at the present. They will reduce the inventory to below 4 million tonnes and reduce their production.