Japan and Korea will raise rolled production this year

Japan and Korea will raise rolled production this year

The production of rolled steel products production forecast for the whole year calls for increasing output both for Japan and South Korea. An estimated increase of 250'000 tons is expected to be seen in Japanese production while the expectations for Korea are almost around 1 million tons of rolled products. The good domestic demand experienced in Korea together with strong sales to other regional countries will drive the production upwards. The main driver to raise Japanese output is seen as the export sales of mainly flat products. In Japan, the rise of production is forecasted to be mainly of flat products with the rising exports as well as good demand from the automotive and shipbuilding industries. Longs production on the other hand, is expected to shrink by around 3% this year, due to the slow demand from the construction sectors. On the contrary, Korea is experiencing a firm demand from the construction sectors which will eventually result in a higher longs production. Consequently a rise of about 1.8% over the last year's production is expected to be seen this year. In the meantime, the greater proportion of the total rise of rolled steel production is foreseen to be for flat products thanks to the steady consumption of shipbuilding industry as well as the automotive. These two industries help raise the production of plate and galvanised coil manufacturers.