In May this year, domestic steel product consumption in Japan amounted to 3.76 million metric tons, down by 7.3 percent compared to April and by 11.3 percent year on year, according to the data released by the Japan Iron and Steel Association (JISF). Meanwhile, in the January-May period this year, domestic steel consumption in the country dropped by 5.8 percent year on year to 20.03 million metric tons.
In the first five months of this year, steel product consumption in the construction sector in Japan declined by 0.3 percent to 4.25 million metric tons, while steel product consumption in the Japanese automotive sector amounted to 4.45 million metric tons, down 15.8 percent, both on year-on-year basis. In the given period, Japan’s shipbuilding industry consumed 1.18 million metric tons of steel products, rising by 13.1 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.