In February of the current year, steel product orders, including specialty steels, booked by domestic sectors in Japan amounted to 4.72 million metric tons, up 1.32 percent compared to February 2013, according to the data released by the Japan Iron and Steel Association (JISF). Meanwhile, in the first two months of this year, domestic steel product orders in Japan increased by 4.36 percent year on year to 9.6 million metric tons.
In February of the current year, steel product orders in Japan booked by the domestic construction sector decreased by 9.45 percent to 991,810 million mt, while steel product orders booked by the Japanese automotive sector came to 1.07 million metric tons, increasing by 9.28 percent, both including special steel and on year-on-year basis. Japan's shipbuilding industry booked 344,605 metric tons of steel products in February this year, up 16.69 percent compared to February 2013.