In September this year, Japan's seasonally adjusted industrial production decreased 4.1 percent from the previous month, while the original index indicated a decrease of 8.1 percent compared to the same month last year. The country’s seasonally adjusted industrial production has been trending down since March this year, with the exception of the month-on-month increase recorded in June.
According to the revised Indices of Industrial Production report published by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, in September the Japanese iron and steel production index decreased 2.9 percent year on year, while Japan's seasonally adjusted iron and steel production index fell 5.2 percent in September compared to August. Meanwhile, in September Japanese producers' iron and steel shipments fell by 3.6 percent and iron and steel inventories were up by 2.5 percent, both compared to the previous month.
In September, the seasonally adjusted crude steel production index including semi-finished steel in Japan decreased by 5.9 percent compared to the previous month and was down by 0.2 percent on year-on-year basis. Producers' crude steel shipments in September were down by 9.4 percent compared to the previous month and down 0.7 percent compared to the same month last year.