In May this year, domestic steel product consumption in Japan amounted to 3.61 million metric tons, declining by 3.2 percent compared to April and by 3.9 percent year on year, according to the data released by the Japan Iron and Steel Association (JISF). Meanwhile, in the January-May period this year, domestic steel consumption in the country dropped by 7.7 percent year on year to 18.48 million metric tons.
In the first five months of the given year, steel product consumption in the construction sector in Japan moved down by 12.6 percent to 3,71 million metric tons, while steel product consumption in the Japanese automotive sector amounted to 4.57 million metric tons, up 2.8 percent, both on year-on-year basis. In the given period, Japan’s shipbuilding industry consumed 1.13 million metric tons of steel products, down 4.2 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.