Japanese steel sales value up 16.5 percent in June over May

In Japan large-scale wholesale iron and steel sales value in June this year amounted to JPY 868 billion ($11.15 billion), increasing 9.5 percent compared to the same month of the previous year and up 16.5 percent compared to May of the current year, according to statistics released by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). Meanwhile, in the second quarter of 2011 large-scale wholesale iron and steel sales value in Japan totaled JPY 2.376 trillion ($30.54 billion), increasing 3.6 percent over the same period of 2010, but decreasing 5.8 percent from the first quarter of this year.