Japan Integrated Steels’ Structural Steel Output Share Hits 51.5% in F2009

Japanese hot rolled structural steel output share of Sumitomo Metal Industries, Kobe Steel and Nippon Steel increased by 3.3 percentage points to 51.5% in fiscal 2009 ended March 2010 from fiscal 2008. The Japanese output decreased by 19.9% to 6.252 million tonnes, which was 33.4% lower than the peak in fiscal 2007. The output significantly decreased due to the plunge in automobile and construction machinery demand under global economy deterioration.

Sumitomo Metals’ output share decreased by 1.7 points to 19.0% with 1.185 million tonnes output. The share of Kobe Steel increased by 2.5 points to 18.0% with 1.128 million tonnes output. Nippon Steel’s share increased by 2.5 points to 14.5% with 905,889 tonnes output.

Daido Steel’s production share increased by 0.8 points to 9.3% with 582,540 tonnes output in fiscal 2009 from fiscal 2008. Aichi Steel’s share increased by 1.3 points to 8.5% with 528,904 tonnes output.