Japan Rolled Ti Shipment Forecasted to Decrease by 10% in CY2012

Japan Titanium Society announced on Tuesday Japanese shipment of rolled titanium products is forecasted to decrease by around 10% in volume in CY2012 compared with the figure in CY2011. The export might slow down for the large-scale seawater desalination plant project in the Middle East due to the project delay. The society also views the shipment for domestic market would not recover fully yet.

The annual shipment was 19,358 tonnes in CY2011, which expanded by 40.4% from the previous year and hit the secondly highest volume ever. The shipment for export marked record 13,245 tonnes, higher than the previous record of 9,563 tonnes in CY2008. On the contrary, the shipment for domestic market represented year-to-year plus for electrolysis and plate-type heat exchangers but didn’t improve fully for other applications.

Japan Titanium Society overviewed domestic demand would maintain inactive in CY2012. The export might slow down for the desalination plant project in the Middle East as well as the export would be impacted by underlying trend of extremely strong yen.