In May of the current year, steel product orders, including specialty steels, booked by domestic sectors in Japan amounted to 4.76 million metric tons, up 2.71 percent compared to May 2013, but down 2.6 percent compared to April, according to the data released by the Japan Iron and Steel Association (JISF). Meanwhile, in the first five months of this year, domestic steel product orders in Japan increased by 3.17 percent year on year to 24.06 million metric tons.
In May of the current year, steel product orders in Japan booked by the domestic construction sector increased by 9.96 percent to 1.07 million mt, while steel product orders booked by the Japanese automotive sector came to 1.08 million metric tons, decreasing by 1.18 percent, both including special steel and on year-on-year basis. Japan's shipbuilding industry booked 331,550 metric tons of steel products in May this year, up 10.44 percent compared to May 2013.