In August this year, domestic steel product consumption in Japan amounted to 3.66 million metric tons, up by 5.3 percent compared to July and falling by 12.4 percent year on year, according to the data released by the Japan Iron and Steel Association (JISF). Meanwhile, in the January-August period of the year, domestic steel product consumption in Japan decreased by 20.9 percent year on year to 28.16 million metric tons.
In the first eight months of the year, steel product consumption in the construction sector in Japan fell by 9.5 percent to 6.35 million metric tons, while steel product consumption in the Japanese automotive sector amounted to 6.08 million metric tons, down 44.1 percent, both on year-on-year basis. In the given period, Japan's shipbuilding industry consumed 2.17 million metric tons of steel products, declining by 17.7 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.