In October of the current year, steel product orders, including specialty steels, booked by domestic sectors in Japan amounted to 4.94 million metric tons, down 2.9 percent compared to October 2013 but up 2.2 percent compared to September, according to the data released by the Japan Iron and Steel Association (JISF). Meanwhile, in the January-October period of this year, domestic steel product orders in Japan increased by 1.9 percent year on year to 48.22 million metric tons.
In October of the current year, steel product orders in Japan booked by the domestic construction sector decreased by eight percent to 1.08 million mt, while steel product orders booked by the Japanese automotive sector amounted to 1.08 million metric tons, down 1.8 percent, both including special steel and on year-on-year basis. Japan's shipbuilding industry booked 396,453 metric tons of steel products in October this year, up 17.6 percent compared to October 2013.