In January this year, domestic steel product consumption in Japan amounted to 3.60 million metric tons, down by 4.5 percent compared to December last year and up by 1.6 percent year on year, according to the data released by the Japan Iron and Steel Association (JISF).
In the first month of 2026, steel product consumption in the construction sector in Japan moved down by 3.2 percent to 638,654 metric tons, while steel product consumption in the Japanese automotive sector amounted to 940,311 metric tons, up 1.9 percent, both on year-on-year basis. In the given month, Japan’s shipbuilding industry consumed 243,192 mt of steel products, down 0.9 percent compared to the same month of the previous year.