In August of the current year, steel product orders, including specialty steels, booked by domestic sectors in Japan amounted to 4.71 million metric tons, down 1.16 percent compared to August 2013 and down 3.1 percent compared to July, according to the data released by the Japan Iron and Steel Association (JISF). Meanwhile, in the January-August period of this year, domestic steel product orders in Japan increased by 2.62 percent year on year to 38.45 million metric tons.
In August of the current year, steel product orders in Japan booked by the domestic construction sector decreased by 6.45 percent to 984,405 mt, while steel product orders booked by the Japanese automotive sector came to 1.16 million metric tons, remaining unchanged, both including special steel and on year-on-year basis. Japan's shipbuilding industry booked 373,114 metric tons of steel products in August this year, up 20.45 percent compared to August 2013.