In July of the current year, steel product orders, including specialty steels, booked by domestic sectors in Japan amounted to 4.86 million metric tons, up 0.52 percent compared to July 2013 and up 0.67 percent compared to June, according to the data released by the Japan Iron and Steel Association (JISF). Meanwhile, in the January-July period of this year, domestic steel product orders in Japan increased by 3.17 percent year on year to 33.74 million metric tons.
In July of the current year, steel product orders in Japan booked by the domestic construction sector increased by 1.36 percent to 1.08 million mt, while steel product orders booked by the Japanese automotive sector came to 1.05 million metric tons, decreasing by 7.34 percent, both including special steel and on year-on-year basis. Japan's shipbuilding industry booked 394,667 metric tons of steel products in July this year, up 26.01 percent compared to July 2013.