Japan 5 Major Steels’ Raw Steel Output Rises by 4.2% in F2006

Japanese 5 integrated steel increased the raw steel output by 4.2% to 86.45 million tonnes in fiscal 2006 at the ended of March 2007 from last year. They expand their production capacity output by the expansion of their blast furnaces volume for the response for strong demand. The production share of integrated steels decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 73.4% with higher output increase by electric furnaces. Nippon Steel increased the output by 1.6% to 3.2161 million tonnes in fiscal 2006 from fiscal 2005. Kimitsu works of Nippon Steel produced crude steel at 10.026 million tonnes, which continued to produce it at over 10 million tonnes following fiscal 2005. Nagoya works of Nippon Steel only decreased the output by 3.9% in the firms’ works due to blast furnace relining. Nippon Steel reduced the production share by 0.8 points to 27.3%. JFE Steel increased the output by 8.7% to 29.037 million tonnes. The firm’s West Japan Works increased the output by 9.6% to 20.46 million tonnes, which achieved over 20 million tonnes for the first time from the firm’s establishment in 2003. The firm’s East Japan Works increased the output by 6.5% to 8.568 million tonnes. JFE Steel increased the share by 1.0 points to 24.7%. Sumitomo Metal Industries increased the output by 0.5% to 13.377 million tonnes, which decreased the share by 0.4 points to 11.4%. Kobe Steel increased the output by 3.6% to 7.83 million tonnes, which had same share at 6.7%. Nisshin Steel increased the output by 9.6% to 4.048 million tonnes, which increased the share by 0.1 points to 3.4%.