Japan Carbon Steel Order Drops by 6.8% in August

Japanese carbon steel order receipt decreased by 6.8% to 5.39 million tonnes in August from July, which represented first month-to-month decrease in 5 months, announced by Japan Iron and Steel Federation on Tuesday. The order receipt decreased for the first time in 9 months for export while the order for domestic showed first decline since April. The order receipt decreased by 13.9% from a year earlier, which represented year-on-year decline for 13 month in a row.

The carbon steel order receipt was 1.98 million tonnes for export in August, up by 10.4% from a year earlier, which represented increase for 3 straight months while the order showed month-to-month decrease of 14.8%. For domestic, the order decreased by 23.7% to 3.40 million tonnes from a year earlier while the order decreased by 1.3% from July.

The order for construction was 847,000 tonnes in August, same as in July while the order for manufacturing decreased by 2.3% to 1.64 million tonnes from the previous month, which represented first decrease in 6 months.

The carbon steel order receipt decreased by 23.6% to 25.65 million tonnes in April-August compared with corresponding period of 2008. The order increased by 2.4% to 10.11 million tonnes for export and declined by 34.4% to 15.54 million tonnes for domestic market.