According to the data released by the Japan Iron and Steel Association (JISF), steel product orders, including specialty steels, booked by domestic steel consuming sectors in Japan in March this year amounted to 7.7 million metric tons, increasing by 2.7 percent compared to February and down two percent year on year.
In the first quarter, Japan's domestic steel product orders, including specialty steels, amounted to 22.6 million mt, decreasing by 0.8 percent compared to the first quarter of 2012.
In the first quarter, ordinary steel product orders in Japan booked by the domestic construction sector increased by 10 percent year on year, amounting to 3.1 million mt, while steel product orders booked by the Japanese automotive sector, including specialty steel, came to 3 million metric tons, falling by 11.6 percent as compared to the same quarter last year. Japan's shipbuilding industry booked 856,333 metric tons of ordinary steel products in the first quarter, down 20.7 percent as compared to the same quarter of 2012.
