Japan Hot Rolled Special Steel Output to Rise by 11% in July-September

Japanese production of hot rolled special steel products increases by 11% to 5.796 million tonnes in July-September from same period of 2007, according to Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The output is 3.4% higher than 5.605 million tonnes of demand estimated by METI. The makers try to keep high level production to meet strong demand for automobile and construction machinery. The output in April-September increases by 8.5% to 11.416 million tonnes from same period of 2007. The quarterly output increases by 3.1% from April-June. The output increases quarter to quarter for the first time in 2 quarters while the output increase is 4 quarters in a row in year to year. With the high pace output increase, the full year output could exceed record in fiscal 2007 ending March 2008.