Japan Steel Order Receipts Level Off in June

Japanese steel makers’ order receipts for carbon steel products decreased by 0.4% to 5.675 million tonnes in June from May, which represented below 6 million tonnes for 2 months in a row, announced by Japan Iron and Steel Federation on Wednesday. The orders decreased by 0.1% to 3.624 million tonnes from domestic buyers and by 1.0% to 2.052 million tonnes from offshore buyers.

Domestic orders leveled off due to slow construction market despite of recovery of manufacturing industry. Steel export decreased due to adjustment phase in Asian market, which decreased by 9.2% in June from a year earlier and represented first year-on-year minus in 13 months.

Order receipts decreased by 3.8% to 782,000 tonnes from domestic construction market in June from May. Orders for building construction decreased by 6.7% to 179,000 tonnes and orders for civil engineering lowered by 3.3% to 431,000 tonnes. Meanwhile, order receipts increased by 3.0% to 1.854 million tonnes from domestic manufacturing industry. Orders for automobiles increased by 5.9% to 794,000 tonnes and orders for industrial machines upped by 2.5% to 136,000 tonnes.

For April-June, order receipts totaled 17.727 million tonnes and increased by 22.4% from a year earlier. Orders increased by 27.5% to 11.078 million tonnes from domestic buyers and by 14.7% to 6.648 million tonnes from offshore buyers.

In the pre-shock same period of April-June 2007, order receipts were 80.4 million tonnes, 57.2 million tonnes of which were from domestic buyers and 23.2 million tonnes from offshore buyers. Order volume was 88% for April-June 2010 against April-June 2007, 77% from domestic buyers and 114% from offshore buyers.