Japan Carbon Steel Order Hits Month-to-Month in January

Japanese steel makers’ carbon steel order receipt decreased by 4.0% to 5.887 million tonnes in January from December 2009, announced by Japan Iron and Steel Federation on Friday. The volume decreased seasonally from previous month but the order was 52.2% higher than a year earlier. The order from domestic buyers was flat at 3.508 million tonnes as December while the order from offshore buyers decreased by 9.4% to 2.379 million tonnes from December apparently due to seasonal slow demand and domestic production trouble. The domestic order kept around 3.5 million tonnes for 7 months in a row through January under slow demand recovery.

The domestic order decreased by 2.9% to 1.836 million tonnes for manufacturers in January from December. The order increased by 8.6% to 875,000 tonnes for automobile, by 1.3% to 112,000 tonnes for industrial machinery and by 0.5% to 134,000 tonnes for electrical machinery while the order decreased by 19.6% to 422,000 tonnes for shipbuilding.

The domestic construction order increased by 5.4% to 801,000 tonnes in January from December. The building order increased by 14.5% to 424,000 tonnes while the civil works order decreased by 4.1% to 201,000 tonnes.