Japan Reinforced Concrete Structure Dimension Drops by 30% in May

Building construction dimension of Japanese reinforced concrete structures decreased by 30% to 1.94 million square meters in May from a year earlier, which showed year-to-year minus for 5 consecutive months. The dimension represented below 2 million square meters for the first time since November 2007.

The dimension in Hokkaido decreased by 51% to 70,000 square meters in May from a year earlier, by 44% to 90,000 square meters around Nagoya and Shikoku, by 43% to 750,000 square meters around Tokyo, while increased in Hokuriku for 2 consecutive months and in Tohoku and Okinawa for the first time in 2 months.

Japanese small bar output including rebar decreased by 27.5% to 759,281 tonnes in May from a year earlier, while which showed month-to-month increase by 6.8%. Japanese small bar inventory rate increased by 10 percentage points to 83.9% for shipment at the end of May from April. Some market players are concerned about makers’ output increase despite of severe demand condition.