Japan special Steel Products Award Drops by 19.7% in F2008

The amount of Japanese special steel products award decreased to 15.74 million tonnes by 19.7% in fiscal 2008 at ended March from fiscal 2007, and decreased for the first time in 7 years and was below at 15.97 million tonnes in fiscal 2002. The special steel products award decreased when automobile and industrial machine industries reduced the production activity drastically from the last half of fiscal 2008. The award decreased to 629,292 tonnes by 63.8% in March from a year earlier, and decreased in March from last month for 6 consecutive months.

The award decreased to 11.22 million tonnes by 20.7 % for domestic market in fiscal 2008 from fiscal 2007 and 4.52 million tonnes by 17.2% for export. As for domestic market, the award volume decreased to 3.49 million tonnes by 23.2% for automobile in fiscal 2008 from fiscal 2007, 1.38 million tonnes by 21.6% for industrial machine and 4.07 million tonnes by 20.7% for secondary processors.

The award volume decreased to 412,216 tonnes by 66.9% for domestic market in March from a year earlier and 217076 tonnes by 55.9% for export. As for domestic market, the award decreased to 122,319 tonnes by 67.8% for automobile in March from a year earlier and 34,419 tonnes by 78.5%.

The award for automobile is expected to increase step by step when automobile makers are starting to output with actual demand thanks to inventory adjustment of automobile in domestic and overseas market.

Japanese common steel products award decreased to 66.25 million tonnes by 17.6% in fiscal 2008 from fiscal 2007, and 3.907 million tonnes by 43.7% in March from a year earlier. The award of special steel products decreased more than common steel products.