In November last year, steel product orders, including specialty steels, booked by domestic sectors in Japan amounted to 4.82 million metric tons, up 0.6 percent compared to October and falling 2.82 percent year on year, according to the data released by the Japan Iron and Steel Association (JISF). Meanwhile, in the January-November period last year, domestic steel product orders in Japan increased by 1.85 percent year on year to 51.22 million metric tons.
In November, ordinary steel product orders in Japan booked by the domestic construction sector decreased by 12.2 percent to 948,388 metric tons, while steel product orders including special steel orders booked by the Japanese automotive sector amounted to 1.18 million metric tons, up 0.85 percent, both on year-on-year basis. Japan's shipbuilding industry booked 283,137 metric tons of ordinary steel products in the given month, down 16.55 percent compared to the same month of 2016.