In July this year, domestic steel product consumption in Japan amounted to 3.76 million metric tons, down by 2.4 percent compared to June and by 1.9 percent year on year, according to the data released by the Japan Iron and Steel Association (JISF). Meanwhile, in the January-July period this year, domestic steel consumption in the country increased by 22.3 percent year on year to 26.1 million metric tons.
In the first seven months of the given year, steel product consumption in the construction sector in Japan moved down by 11.5 percent to 5.18 million metric tons, while steel product consumption in the Japanese automotive sector amounted to 6.5 million metric tons, up 7.0 percent, both on year-on-year basis. In the given period, Japan’s shipbuilding industry consumed 1.63 million metric tons of steel products, down 2.7 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.