Domestic steel orders witness sharp plunge in Japan

The volume of domestic steel orders in the country dropped significantly during the month of January this year. According to latest statistics released by the Japanese Iron and Steel Federation (JISF), the domestic orders declined by nearly 6% over the previous year. Furthermore, the trade body has stated that it continues to maintain cautious outlook on the sector for the year 2016.

The steel product orders during the month totaled 5.54 million tonnes. This is down by 5.8% when compared with the previous month. Also domestic orders are down by 2.2% when compared with the same month a year before. The cumulative domestic orders during the initial ten-month period of the fiscal from April 2015 to January 2016 totaled 57.6 million tonnes, marginally down by 3.2% over the previous fiscal.

Meantime, domestic steel demand dropped by 3.4% in Jan ’16 over the previous month. Over the year, the domestic steel demand dropped by 4.5%. The cumulative steel demand from April last year to January this year has dropped sharply by 5.7% to 35.3 million tonnes. At the same time, steel exports out of the country totaled 21.7 million tonnes during April to January, rising slightly by 1.7% over the previous year.

The anticipated higher buying by purchasers ahead of the proposed consumption tax hikes in 2017 may keep the domestic steel demand high during the current year. However, JISF predicts that steel exports from the country may fall during the year, on account of increased competition from other Asian countries.