In March this year, Japan's seasonally adjusted industrial production increased 0.9 percent over the previous month, while the original index indicated a decrease of 6.7 percent compared to the same month last year. The country's seasonally adjusted industrial production has generally moved on an increasing trend on month-on-month basis since November 2012.
According to the revised Indices of Industrial Production report published by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), in March the Japanese iron and steel production index decreased 2.5 percent year on year, while Japan's seasonally adjusted iron and steel production index rose 2.1 percent in March compared to February. Meanwhile, in March Japanese producers' iron and steel shipments rose by 1.3 percent and iron and steel inventories were up by 1.5 percent, both compared to the previous month. On year-on-year basis, the producers' iron and steel shipments fell by 2.6 percent, while iron and steel inventories in Japan were down by 5.8 percent in March.
In the month in question, the seasonally adjusted crude steel production index including semi-finished steel in Japan increased by four percent compared to the previous month and was up by 1.7 percent on year-on-year basis. Producers' crude steel shipments in March were down by 5.1 percent compared to the previous month and up 4.8 percent compared to the same month last year.