Japan Steel Industry Investment Increases by 44% in F2006

Capital investment of Japanese steel industry would increase by 44% to 779.4 billion yen in fiscal 2006 ending March 2007 from fiscal 2005, increasing for 2 consecutive years, announced Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on Friday. Japanese steel makers advance their output capacities expansion for strong steel demand in addition to their investment for renewal, maintenance and repairing of their equipment. Japanese 5 major integrated steels plan capacity investments to exceed depreciations. Total investment ratio against sales would be 7.7%, which would exceed 5.3% of average ratio of all manufacturing industries.The capital investment would increase by 47.1% to 689.955 billion yen for ordinary steels in fiscal 2006 from fiscal 2005, by 23% to 65.376 billion yen for special steels, by 22.5% to 12.047 billion yen for other steels and by 28.8% to 12.027 billion yen for formed and fabricated steel materials. Each growth rate would exceed 20%.Japanese private capital investment for all industries would increase by 15.2% to 13.7518 trillion yen in fiscal 2006 from fiscal 2005, increasing for 4 consecutive years. The investment among manufacturing industries would increase by 24.3% to 6.7308 trillion yen thanks to the much growth in steel, chemical and electronic machine industries.The number of surveyed companies was 2,289, which were capitalized at over 100 million yen, and the response was 1,355. The response rate was 59.2%.