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Japan’s domestic sales of stainless hot-rolled and cold-rolled coils and sheets from 32 coil centers recovered by 8.6% on month to 51,269 tonnes, though it was still 12% lower on year, according to the latest data from the Japan Stainless Coil Center Association (JSCA) on November 26, indicating the domestic demand has been recovering gradually, market sources shared.
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Japan’s dealer prices of carbon steel hot-rolled and cold-rolled sheets have both gained Yen 1,000/tonne ($10/t) on month due to the tightening in supply from the distributors, and buyers were forced to pay more to secure deliveries, according to sources in Tokyo and Nagoya in central Japan.
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Osaka Steel, Japan’s largest steel section producer, has added Yen 3,000/tonne ($29/t) on its list prices of sections for December domestic sales, mainly to offset higher scrap prices, a company official confirmed on November 26.
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Toyota Motor, Japan’s largest automaker, has informed its auto component suppliers that it will keep domestic vehicle production at above 13,000 units/day until February, industry sources in Nagoya and Tokyo said on Wednesday. The projected daily rate will be slightly lower compared with previous months, but the level remains high overall, meaning that steel consumption by the company and its vast network of components suppliers will likely stay firm, they said.
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill, has restarted a banked blast furnace located in the Kimitsu Area of its East Nippon Works in Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo, to respond to improving steel demand from consumers, especially auto makers.
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Japan’s crude steel production in October including both carbon and special steel declined by 11.7% on year to some 7.2 million tonnes, making for the eighth consecutive monthly on-year decrease, according to the latest data released by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on November 24.
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The annual information exchange between steel industry officials in Japan and Taiwan held recently identified no major outstanding issues. “Steel trade between Taiwan and Japan is currently smooth,” an official from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) commented on Tuesday. In previous years, Japanese exports of heavy sections had been a source of friction, but those tensions have eased, Mysteel Global understands.
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Japan’s H2 grade scrap prices for both domestic sales and exports rose for the fourth week over November 16-20, up another Yen 500-1,000/tonne ($5-10/t), as the supply constraint and the anticipation of further price rises have been lending consistent support to the prices, prompting buyers to agree on higher prices, scrap traders in Tokyo shared.
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China’s production of the four mainstream electric home appliances continued with recovery in October, with refrigerator posting the sharpest 25.8% on year gain in production, according to the latest data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which was mainly due to robust demand from overseas, Mysteel Global noted.
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill, plans to start commercial production on a new continuous hot-dip galvanizing line (CGL) at the Kimitsu area of its East Nippon Works in Chiba prefecture sometime during January-March next year, a company official confirmed on Thursday. The start-up, delayed for over six months, is to lift supplies of ultra-high-tensile steel sheets for Japan’s recovering automotive manufacturing sector.
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Japan’s all kinds of steel exports for October fell 13% on year to about 2.47 million tonnes, or the sixth consecutive month posting an on-year decline, mainly as the Japanese integrated mills had been prioritizing supplies to domestic customers, Mysteel Global understood from the preliminary data released by Japan’s Ministry of Finance on November 18.
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The backlog of construction orders for new ships held by Chinese shipbuilders had slipped further by end-October despite a slight recovery in new vessel orders last month, according to the latest release by the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (CANSI) on November 18. Hovering below the threshold of 80 million dead weight tons (dwt) for six successive months, the yards’ backlog by the end of last month had sunk further to around 71 million dwt, CANSI reported.
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Japan’s electric-arc-furnace (EAF) steel producers have been retreating from billet exports for now until they are clear what prices to offer with the rising scrap costs, though inquiries from the buyers in the Asian market have stayed active, according to sources in Tokyo and Osaka November 18.
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Japan’s sales of carbon steel products for both the domestic market and export in September rose 5.6% on year to about 5.23 million tonnes, according to the latest data released by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on November 16. “A clear recovery in sales has finally appeared,” a JISF official commented.
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Over November 9-13, Japan’s H2-grade steel scrap prices rose for the third week for domestic sales, up another Yen 500-1,000/tonne ($5-10/t) on week, and new orders from overseas also grew by Yen 2,000/t on week, in response to the higher monthly bidding prices for December deliveries, scrap traders in Tokyo shared.
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill, expects to sell only about 620,000 tonnes of carbon and special steel seamless pipes during the current fiscal (April 2020-March 2021), down 36.1% on year, as the COVID-19 pandemic has brought oil and gas development projects in many countries to a halt.
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Tokyo Steel Manufacturing, Japan’s leading electric-arc-furnace producer, is adding Yen 2,000/t ($19/t) to the list prices of all its finished carbon steel products for December sales to pass on higher input costs. The mini-mill last Thursday raised its scrap buying prices by Yen 500/t to Yen 1,500/t for all grades at all its facilities, a move Mysteel Global predicted was a likely precursor to it raising product prices for December sales.
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Japan’s core machinery orders from domestic users excluding shipbuilders and power equipment makers during the current quarter are forecast to drop by 1.9% on a seasonally adjusted basis from the July-September period to Yen 2.18 trillion ($20.78 billion), according to a release from the Japanese government’s Cabinet Office on November 12. The decline would make for the sixth consecutive on-quarter decline, the statement noted.
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill and a leader in H-beam producer, has decided to keep its November H-beam prices for domestic spot sales unchanged, to give the market a month to fully digest the price hike it tabled for October sales, the company announced on November 12.
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In October, China’s auto sales persisted on the uptrend, up 0.1% on month or 12.5% on year to 2.6 million units, and among the total, new-energy vehicles (NEVs) sales grew more remarkably, jumping 13.9% on month or 104.5% on year, according to the latest data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) on November 11.
