In April of the current year, steel product orders, including specialty steels, booked by domestic sectors in Japan amounted to 4.89 million metric tons, up 4.09 percent compared to April 2013 and up 1.51 percent compared to March, according to the data released by the Japan Iron and Steel Association (JISF). Meanwhile, in the first four months of this year, domestic steel product orders in Japan increased by 3.28 percent year on year to 19.30 million metric tons.
In April of the current year, steel product orders in Japan booked by the domestic construction sector increased by 1.42 percent to 1.08 million mt, while steel product orders booked by the Japanese automotive sector came to 1.10 million metric tons, increasing by 7.17 percent, both including special steel and on year-on-year basis. Japan's shipbuilding industry booked 370,875 metric tons of steel products in April this year, up 20.51 percent compared to April 2013.