Japan’s crude steel output during fiscal year 2021 (April 2021-March 2022) including both carbon and special steel increased by 15.5% on year to about 95.64 million tonnes, according to the latest data released by Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on April 22.
Japan’s FY’21 crude steel output is the first on-year rise over the past five years, though the tonnage has been well below 100 million tonnes for three years, Mysteel Global understood from the JISF data.
For FY’21, Japan’s crude steel output by blast-furnace (BF) mills approximated 71.15 million tonnes, up 15.9% higher on year, and the balance by electric-arc-furnace (EAF) mills, 14.6% higher on year.
Meanwhile, Japan’s finished steel output during the fiscal year for both carbon and special steel was around 8.39 million tonnes, up 14.1% higher on year, making for the first rise over the last five years.
“The rise was due to the low base in FY’20, which recorded a 51-year low amid the negative impact of the COVID-19. So we can say that higher output in FY’21 was to meet the demand recovery from the virus outbreak,” a JISF official said.
A Tokyo-based steel trader said that Japan’s total steel output in FY’21 could have been higher if Japanese automakers were not suffered from the delay in component deliveries and if they wouldn’t have to trim their output in the second half.
“Japanese automakers are still having difficulties to maintain stable component deliveries. And we understand that they can return to smooth operations in the next quarter (July-September) at the earliest, and then more steel will be consumed by the auto sector in FY’22,” he predicted.
Meanwhile, JISF’s latest data showed that Japan’s crude steel output in March totaled 7.86 million tonnes, down for the third month by 4.3% on year, but 8.9% higher on month. And the country’s total crude steel output over January-March was at 23.01 million tonnes, down 2.9% on year.
Written by Yoko Manabe, yoko.manabe@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an exchange agreement between MySteel Global and SteelMint.
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