Japan Carbon Steel Order Drops by 2.1% in February

Japanese order receipt of carbon steel products decreased by 2.1% to 5.906 million tonnes in February from a year earlier, which decreased for 5 months in a row, announced by Japan Iron and Steel Federation on Tuesday. The order decreased by 0.7% to 3.77 million tonnes for domestic market, which decreased for 2 months in a row, due to lower demand for shipbuilding and appliances. The export order decreased by 4.6% to 2.136 million tonnes, which decreased for 6 months in a row but the volume kept more than 2 million tonnes for 3 months in a row.

The domestic construction order increased by 6.2% to 924,000 tonnes in February from a year earlier, which increased for the first time in 3 months. The order from manufacturers decreased by 4.7% to 1.742 million tonnes, which decreased for 4 months in a row.

The order increased by 8.2% to 180,000 tonnes for civil works in February from a year earlier, which increased for 3 months in a row. The building order increased by 3.4% to 521,000 tonnes, which increased for the first time in 3 months.

The domestic order increased by 7.8% to 807,000 tonnes for automobile in February from a year earlier. The order decreased by 9.4% to 395,000 tonnes for shipbuilding, by 4.1% to 119,000 tonnes for appliances and by 14.0% to 133,000 tonnes for industrial machinery.

The total order decreased by 4.6% to 62.182 million tonnes in April 2011 to February 2012 from same period of previous year. The annual order is likely to 5% lower for fiscal 2011 ended March 2012 from fiscal 2010.