Japanese major 5 steel makers’ raw steel output will be around 42.5 million tonnes in second half of fiscal 2011 ending March 2012, which is 0.4% lower than same period of fiscal 2010. The volume is 500,000 tonnes lower than their plan as of July due to slower export under high yen rate and Thai flood while the production is higher than the first half year with impact of the major earthquake. Their half year production could decrease more depending on world economy, Asian steel price and yen rate.
Sumitomo Metal Industries increases the output by 13% to 6.9 million tonnes in the second half from the first half to meet growing demand for seamless pile. Nippon Steel expects the production is around 15.5 million tonnes as the first half while the firm expected around 16 million tonnes of second half production as of July. JFE Steel plans 14.35 million tonnes of second half production and 28 million tonnes for the full year. The second half production increases slightly to 3.77 million tonnes for Kobe Steel and to 1.94 million tonnes for Nisshin Steel from the first half. Steel industry shows sign to recover when ferrous scrap price hit bottom and iron ore spot price rebounded. However, world economy gets slower than late October when Japanese steel makers announced the full year outlook. Government of China and emerging countries fight against inflation through tighter money supply and Thai flood impacts on automobile production in foreign countries while European economy manages to cope with financial crisis in Greek and Italia and US economy recovery gets slower. Japanese 5 major steel makers’ raw steel output will be around 83.2 million tonnes in fiscal 2011, which is 2.4 million tonnes higher than fiscal 2010 level.
