Japanese Special Steel Order Receipt Steadily Recovers in July

Japanese steel makers’ order receipts for special steel products increased by 3.6% to 1.64 million tonnes in July from a year earlier, which represented year-on-year increase for 2 months in a row, according to Japan Iron and Steel Federation. The orders from domestic market were 1.07 million tonnes and exceeded 1 million tonnes for the first time since March 2011. The orders recovered year-on-year increase from automobile and industrial machine fields.

The orders for export increased by 4.4% to 570,000 tonnes. The orders for export recovered to 620,000 tonnes in June and kept the high level in July though the orders decreased by 8% month-to-month due to very strong yen trend.

The orders from domestic market increased along operative recovery in special steel users while another background seemed that special steel users increased speculative orders in July since they took longer summer holidays in August due to electricity shortage in Japan.

The orders from domestic car industry were 350,000 tonnes in July, increasing by 6.6% year-to-year and by 28.5% month-to-month. The orders from domestic industrial machine field increased by 5.8% to 150,000 tonnes in July from a year earlier. The orders from domestic secondary processors also increased largely month-to-month and reached the volume as high as a year earlier.

By steel grade, the orders for structural steels were 580,000 tonnes in July, which exceeded 575,000 tonnes of monthly record in 2010.