Japan's crude steel output falls again YoY in June

Despite signs that demand for finished steel in some sectors of the domestic economy is improving, Japan's steelmakers still recorded another on-year drop in crude steel output in June, with production slipping by 1.7% to 7.33 million tonnes and making for the 18th consecutive monthly on-year decline, new statistics from the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) show. Worse, last month's result took the January-June total to 43.83 million tonnes, lower by 4.7% from H1 last year.

"Steel consumption has been recovering in some demand areas, such as automobiles, but has lacked momentum overall, as seen in sluggish sales for construction," one industry source observed. By steelmaking process last month, production using the blast furnace-converter combination totalled 5.32 million tonnes, down 5.1% from May, while electric furnace