In June of the current year, steel product orders, including specialty steels, booked by domestic sectors in Japan amounted to 4.83 million metric tons, up 4.84 percent compared to June 2013 and up 1.46 percent compared to May, according to the data released by the Japan Iron and Steel Association (JISF). Meanwhile, in the first half of this year, domestic steel product orders in Japan increased by 3.63 percent year on year to 28.88 million metric tons.
In June of the current year, steel product orders in Japan booked by the domestic construction sector increased by 12.52 percent to 1.05 million mt, while steel product orders booked by the Japanese automotive sector came to 1.1 million metric tons, decreasing by 0.38 percent, both including special steel and on year-on-year basis. Japan's shipbuilding industry booked 351,088 metric tons of steel products in June this year, up 27.35 percent compared to June 2013.