Japan’s Jan-Jun domestic carbon steel sales fall 20%
A sales official from an integrated mill in Tokyo expressed little surprise, highlighting the few causes including the Japanese GDP decline over January-March due to the ongoing China-US trade tension and Japan's consumption tax hike in October 2019, as well as the emerging impact of the COVID-19 on the country’s economies and industries since early April.
Japan’s domestic carbon sales in April-June, thus, went down by 19.9% from January-March and dropped 24.9% on year to about 12 million tonnes, according to the JISF data.
The Japanese mill’s sales official anticipated the country’s carbon steel sales to have hit the bottom April-June, as the market would probably look up for the second half of 2020 with the gradual restart of the domestic economic activities since late May.
He warned, though, that it would be a bit too ambitious to expect a on-year gain in carbon steel sales over July-December.
“There are still many uncertainties, as some sectors such as shipbuilding have not shown improvement, the threat of the second or third wave of virus attacks loiters and we do not know whether or when, and many market participants are acting extremely cautiously, which is good and bad, as it means recovery at the crawling speed,” he explained.
Japan’s carbon steel orders in Jan-Jun
Sectors |
Volume ('000 t) |
Y-o-Y |
Construction |
11,021 |
-20.2% |
(Building) |
2,746 |
-9.7% |
(Civil engineering) |
998 |
-9.0% |
Manufacturing |
6,289 |
-25.5% |
(Automobiles) |
2,886 |
-32.2% |
(Shipbuilding) |
1,673 |
-15.7% |
(Electrical machinery) |
614 |
-18.2% |
Dealers |
5,331 |
-18.8% |
Domestic total |
16,931 |
-19.7% |
Exports |
9,953 |
-3.2% |
Total orders |
26,884 |
-14.3% |
Source: JISF
Positive signs emerged in June though in Japan’s domestic carbon steel sales, as the volume dropped by 22.9% on year but up 9.5% on month to 2.61 million tonnes, which was less steep than the 30% on-year drop for May, as orders from the construction sector rose on the anticipation of price rises, while sales to the domestic manufacturers still fell on month and on year as they had been consuming their stocks after the restart, according to the Japanese sources.
For June, Japan’s carbon steel exports rose 0.7% on year and up 32% on month to 1.7 million tonnes, Mysteel Global understood from the JISF data, which was mainly due to the bullish demand from China and the gradual resumption of economic activities in the other countries, according to a Tokyo-based trader.
Japan’s carbon steel orders in Jun
Sectors |
Volume ('000 t) |
M-o-M |
Y-o-Y |
Construction total |
895 |
+22.9% |
+6.0% |
(Building) |
564 |
+34.7% |
+19.9% |
(Civil engineering) |
157 |
-6.5% |
-9.4% |
Manufacturing total |
845 |
-2.9% |
-45.5% |
(Automobiles) |
240 |
-17.4% |
-65.3% |
(Shipbuilding) |
257 |
-1.2% |
-22.8% |
(Electrical machinery) |
75 |
-18.1% |
-36.0% |
Dealers |
866 |
+10.7% |
-14.6% |
Domestic total |
2,605 |
+9.5% |
-22.9% |
Exports |
1,698 |
+32.0% |
+0.7% |
Total orders |
4,303 |
17.4% |
-15.0% |
Source: JISF
The country’s special steel sales to the auto sector totaled 165,694 tonnes in June, up 7.1% on month but down 54.4% on year, according to the JISF data.
“Japan’s automakers have started lifting their output since July, so their orders for special steel rose in advance in June, and the carbon steel orders by them will should recover on month soon too,” the Tokyo trader said.
Special steel usually takes longer to be finally utilized in auto production, and automakers need to book earlier than carbon steel to guarantee the smooth operations of their plants, Mysteel Global notes.
Written by Yoko Manabe, yoko.manabe@mysteel.com
Edited by Hongmei Li, li.hongmei@mysteel.com
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