Thursday, 12 Aug 2010
The Japan Iron & Steel Federation said that orders for steel products rose by 6% YoY to 5.67 million tonnes in June 2010, marking nine straight months of increases. The pace of growth, however, slowed to the single digits for the first time in eight months on a sharp drop in exports.

Exports tumbled 9.2% to 2.05 million tonnes, which is still a high level. But the figure declined for the first time since May 2009 as Japanese steelmakers held off on signing deals in China because of sliding market prices there amid rising inventories.

Domestic demand for steel material jumped around 120% to 136,000 tons for industrial equipment, reflecting brisk exports of construction machinery to China and other markets. Demand for steel material for automotive applications climbed 29.5% to 794,000 tonnes.

Overall steel orders for the April to June 2010 quarter grew 22.4% to 17.72 million tonnes. Domestic material orders surged 140% for industrial equipment and 50% for automotive use.

Steel orders are a leading indicator of production by about two to three months.

(Sourced from Nikkei)