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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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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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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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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 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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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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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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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.
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Japan’s crude steel output including both carbon and special steel is estimated to grow to about 21.8 million tonnes over October-December, or up 14.9% on quarter, according to a release by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) on November 10, indicating the continuing demand improvement.
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Sales of excavators and other construction equipment across China increased by a huge 60.5% on year to reach 27,331 units last month, a performance which saw total sales over January-October climb by 34.5% on year to 263,839 units, according to the latest statistics from the China Construction Machinery Association (CCMA). Moreover, the growth had expanded from the 32% on-year rise recorded during January-September, it noted in its November 11 report.
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JFE Steel, Japan’s second largest integrated mill, will start relining the No.6 blast furnace at the Chiba area of its East Japan Works much sooner than the mill had initially scheduled, saying that by starting the work early it can start cutting production costs sooner, JFE announced on November 9.
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill, plans to lift the capacity utilization of its steelmaking to 80% over the second half (October 2020 – March 2021) of the fiscal 2020, from the 60-70% in the first half in response to better domestic demand mainly from the auto sector, the company announced on November 6.
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Steel consumption in Shanghai, especially of construction steel, is being disrupted due to the ongoing China International Import Expo (CIIE) in the city, as activity on all construction sites throughout the sprawling 6,400 sq kilometre-metropolis has been ordered stopped. Nevertheless, market sources were confident the disruptions would not weigh on steel prices, Mysteel Global learned.
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Nippon Steel Stainless Steel Corp (NSSC), Japan’s largest stainless producer, is again raising list prices of 300-series cold-rolled coils (CRCs) and plates for domestic sales to distributors, this time by Yen 5,000/tonne ($48/t) for November orders, a sales official from the company confirmed on November 6. The adjustment is its fifth since June and again, it is blaming higher nickel prices.
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China has recently released its long-term guidelines for new energy vehicles (NEVs) for the coming 15 years, reaffirming its determination in prospering the auto models as part of the green economy, which the domestic market sources applauded, agreed the NEV to be the direction for China’ auto industry, though hiccups will emerge along the path of development.
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Kobe Steel, Japan’s third largest integrated mill, adjusted upward its crude steel output target for fiscal 2020 (April 2020 - March 2021) by 4.6% or 250,000 tonnes from the projection in August to 5.65 million tonnes on the anticipation of better demand from the domestic auto sector and related customers for the rest of the FY20.
