Japanese crude steel production in 2010 increased 25.2 percent to 109.6 million mt on year-on-year basis. However, the result was still lower than the 118.74 million mt crude steel production level in 2008.
According to the data released by the Japanese Iron and Steel Federation (JISF), Japanese pig iron production in 2010 rose 22.9 percent to 82.28 million mt on year-on-year basis, but remained under the pig iron production volume of 86.17 million mt in 2008.
In December, the country's pig iron output stood at 6.88 million metric tons and its crude steel production came to 9.17 million metric tons, with increases of 2.5 percent, both compared to the corresponding month of 2009.