In February of the current year, Japan's seasonally adjusted industrial production increased 0.6 percent from the previous month, while the original index indicated a decrease of 10.5 percent compared to the same month last year.
According to the revised Indices of Industrial Production report published by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, in February the Japanese iron and steel production index decreased 6.2 percent year on year, while Japan's seasonally adjusted iron and steel production index rose 2.1 percent in February compared to January. Meanwhile, in February Japanese producers' iron and steel shipments rose by 5.8 percent and iron and steel inventories were down by 0.8 percent, both compared to the previous month. On year-on-year basis, the producers' iron and steel shipments fell by 4.5 percent, while iron and steel inventories in Japan were down by 5.3 percent in February this year.
In February, the seasonally adjusted crude steel production index including semi-finished steel in Japan decreased by 0.2 percent compared to the previous month and was down by 2.4 percent on year-on-year basis. Producers' crude steel shipments in February were down by 6.1 percent compared to the previous month and up 6.9 percent compared to the same month last year.