Japan Major Steels Expand Cold Steel Sheet Output Share in F2007

Japanese major steel makers expanded the production share for cold rolled flat steel in fiscal 2007 from fiscal 2006 when they tried to meet strong demand from automakers and flat screen television booming appliances makers. The rerollers reduced the share due to slow building demand after start of new building standard law. Japanese cold rolled sheet output increased by 1.5% to 26.37 million tonnes in fiscal 2007 from fiscal 2006. The makers kept the position from top makers of Nippon Steel to rerollers as fiscal 2006. JFE Steel increased the output by 3.2% increasing the share by 0.5 percentage points to 31.9% while Nippon Steel reduced the share by 0.1 point to 35.4% despite of 1.2% higher output. The share gap between the top 2 makers decreased to 3.5 points from 4.1 points in fiscal 2006. The third maker of Sumitomo Metal Industries increased the output by 3.9% in fiscal 2007 from fiscal 2006 increasing the share to 10.1% from 9.9%. The fourth maker of Nisshin Steel increased the output by 3.6% increasing the share to 8.6% from 8.4%. Nippon Steel & Sumikin Coated Sheet Corporation recorded widest share drop in fiscal 2007 from fiscal 2006 when the firm focuses on building materials. The firm decreased the output by 9.8% decreasing the output share to 2.6% of total output from 2.3%. Yodogawa Steel Works, which supplies the products for appliances makers along with construction industry, decreased the output by 0.8% in fiscal 2007 from fiscal 2006 decreasing the share by 0.1 point to 2.8%.