Japan Special Steel Products Output to Increase by 4% in January-March

Japanese production of hot rolled special steel products increases by 4% to 5.153 million tonnes in January-March from October-December, representing first increase in quarters, according to Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The output is 0.5% lower than that in January-March 2005, representing decreases for 2 consecutive quarters. The output figure, which METI gathered from plans of makers, is 1.6% higher than the demand at 5.074 million tonnes estimated by METI. The output will increase for domestic shipment in January-March from October-December under firm demand for automobile and construction machinery. The output for export also increases by 15.2% when high tensile steel export turns into increase from former slow pace and the users in automotive industry reduced the steel inventory in Asian market. The output will increase by 1.2% to 20.234 million tonnes in fiscal 2005 ending March 2005 from fiscal 2004 reaching 20 million tonnes for the first time. The output increases again after it increased for 3 consecutive years to fiscal 2004.