Japan's steel production sees modest growth in Jan'24

Japan's crude steel production edged up in January 2024. The Japan Iron and Steel Federation (JISF) reported a 0.6% y-o-y increase, bringing production to 7.266 million tonnes (mnt). This marked the second consecutive month of y-o-y growth, but daily production remains stagnant at around 234,000 tonnes (t) similar to 225,000 t in December 2023, resulting in a low annualised rate of around 85 mnt.

Production

Cumulative Production: In FY23, the cumulative production reached 72.64 mnt, marking a y-o-y decrease of 1.1%

Production from furnace route:

• January steel production saw a slight decrease in converter steel production (-0.1% to 5,427,000 t) compared to the last year.
  
  
• However, electric arc furnace steel production increased by 2.7% to 1,839,000 t y-o-y, offsetting the decline and keeping overall sales nearly flat.
  
  

Ordinary steel production: Production of ordinary steel inched down by 0.1% y-o-y reaching 5,595,000 t.

Special steel production: Special steel production increased by 3.2% y-o-y to 1,670,000 t, marking the first increase in two months.

Hot-rolled steel production: Steel production (hot-rolled steel) edged up by 0.9% y-o-y to 6,356,000 t, marking the first increase in four months.

Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Japan Metal Daily and BigMint