In January of the current year, Japan's seasonally adjusted industrial production increased 0.3 percent from the previous month, while the original index indicated a decrease of 5.8 percent compared to the same month last year. The country's seasonally adjusted industrial production mostly moved on a decreasing trend in the last three quarters of 2012, with the exception of month-on-month increases recorded in June, October and December.
According to the revised Indices of Industrial Production report published by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, in January the Japanese iron and steel production index decreased 1.2 percent year on year, while Japan's seasonally adjusted iron and steel production index rose 6.6 percent in January compared to December. Meanwhile, in January Japanese producers' iron and steel shipments rose by 2.1 percent and iron and steel inventories were up by 1.6 percent, both compared to the previous month. On year-on-year basis, the producers' iron and steel shipments fell by 1.4 percent, while iron and steel inventories in Japan were down by 3.2 percent in January this year.
In January, the seasonally adjusted crude steel production index including semi-finished steel in Japan increased by 7.5 percent compared to the previous month and was up by 3.8 percent on year-on-year basis. Producers' crude steel shipments in January were up by 11.2 percent compared to the previous month and up 16.5 percent compared to the same month last year.