Japanese steel flying in quiet economy

摘要

The Japanese economy will struggle this year to get GDP growth above 1 percent, but the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) reported that May deals showed the strong volume gains in orders seen in recent months being maintained. Domestic orders were 10.6 percent higher year-on-year. This pushed gains over the first five months to 8.3 percent. There was a big rise in business with carmakers, who ordered 20.4 percent more - 131,000 tonnes - than in May 1999. Their total was up 11.1 percent on January-May 1999. Data from the IISI shows Japanese crude steel production booming with output for the first half of 2000 up 17.6 percent year-on-year, to 52.3m tonnes. Japanese mills expect to reach l00m tonnes for the year, the first time since 1997.