Japan Common Steels Orders Increase by 2.6% in March

Amount of received orders at Japanese steel makers for common steel products increased by 2.6% to 6.855 million tonnes in March from a year ago, which increased for 2 consecutive months thanks to increasing demand from manufacturing industries, announced Japan Iron & Steel Federation on Monday.Construction related orders decreased by 1% to 1.112 million tonnes since the order reception decreased by 6.3% for civil engineering. Orders from manufacturing industries increased by 10.8% to 2.031 million tonnes with when the orders increased for shipbuilding by 34.3% and also for automobile, electric and industry machines. Orders from dealers and distributors, about 70% of which are used for construction, decreased by 0.7% to 1.398 million tonnes.Total domestic demand increased by 3.4% to 4.772 million tonnes and the export by 0.4% to 1.947 million tonnes. Demand especially increased for rack rail, H-beam and shape steel.