According to the statistics provided by the Japan Iron and Steel Association, the steel products orders booked by the domestic steel consuming sectors in April this year amounted 5.042 million metric tons, increasing by 19.1 percent compared to March 2009 and down 33 percent year on year.
Accordingly, total domestic consumption reached 2.783 million metric tons, increasing by 4.8 percent month on month, and down 42.5 percent compared to April 2008; meanwhile, exports totaled 1.762 million metric tons, up 40.7 percent compared to March 2009 and down 34.6 percent year on year.
In April 2009, steel products orders booked by the construction sector in Japan decreased by 0.2 percent compared to March, to 764,000 metric tons, while the year-on-year decrease was 35.8 percent. Meanwhile, steel product orders booked by the automotive sector reached 452,000 metric tons, increasing by 32.2 percent compared to March, down 55.1 percent year on year, while Japan's shipbuilding industry booked 452,000 metric tons of steel products during the period in question, down 5.1 percent month to month and 3.5 percent year on year.