Japan Steel Sheet Inventory Still Surplus to Actual Demand

Kozo Uchida, vice president of Nippon Steel, described at a regular press conference on 1 June that Japanese steel sheet inventory is still surplus against the actual demand though which reached below 4 million tonnes at the end of April. He said domestic plate inventory is also at the very high level. He indicated Japanese steel makers should continue output reductions to adjust market inventory to actual demand level.

Mr. Uchida analyzed Japanese manufacturing industry is advancing inventory adjustment and recovering their operations to the actual demand level, as seen in governmental figures that Japanese Industrial Production represented plus for 2 months in a row. However, he said, the recovering fields are limited and total operation rate still maintains low. In addition, he referred to continuous drop of domestic construction work receipts in April.

As to the domestic inventory level of hot-rolled, cold-rolled and surface coated steel sheets, Mr. Uchida showed a past data that the inventory was 3.54 million tonnes at the end of November 2002 and annual crude steel output was below 110 million tonnes in fiscal 2002 (Apr02-Mar03). Along the data, he said the inventory adjustment should be more progressed even though the demand recovery level is unforeseeable.