For April, Japan’s domestic carbon steel sales had declined for the eighth month by 4.8% on year to about 3.13 million tonnes, according to the data released by Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on June 16. Sources shared the continuing slower auto output had led Japan’s steel sales to decline.
The decline might be partially due to the logistics disruptions caused by the COVID lockdown in Shanghai over April-May, as some manufacturers were forced to slow down their operations with the delay in components deliveries.
“Although the lockdown has been lifted from June, we learned logistics services have yet to fully resume. So it may take some more time for Japanese manufactures to receive their components on time, and their steel bookings may not recover soon,” a Tokyo-based steel trader anticipated.
In April, Japan’s carbon steel export sales rose 2.4% on year but down 5.8% on month to 2.11 million tonnes. And the country’s total carbon steel for exports over January-March averaged 1.92 million tonnes, Mysteel Global calculated based on the JISF data.
A second steel trader in Tokyo observed that Japan’s export bookings in April were comparatively high in recent months, as he believed the continuing depreciation of Yen might have pushed Japanese mills to allocate more for exports.
By product, Japan’s total sales of hot-rolled coils (HRC)– the largest item of Japan’s steel output and a key item of exports – were 1.78 million tonnes in April, down 0.1% on year and 7.1% lower on month.
The second trader explained sales of most other sheet products declined by larger degrees in April, but the increase in HRC export volumes resulted the item’s total sales to mostly hover that month.
Written by Yoko Manabe, yoko.manabe@mysteel.com
Note: This article has been published in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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