Production and Technology of Iron and Steel in Japan during 1996.

Economic Climate Surrounding lron and Steel mand, when viewed as the whole year, increased by Industry being supported by good business in the first half of 1995.From the uses' point of view, the demand for Situation in 1995 the materials of construction, notably the government-The economy in our country in 1995 had been in a funded construction, increased.And that for the manu- gradual recovery process since the latter half of 1994; facturing industry including the sectors of industrial however, the violent shock of the Hanshin-Awaji Great machinery, ships, etc., also increased, while the demand Earthquake Disaster at the beginning of 1995 and the from the automobile sectors, only slightly increased over rapid rise in the yen value after last Marchbrought the 1994 in spite of the decrease in the finished car exports economy into a stalling condition.The measures deter- due to the evolution of the transplant production.The mined by Government, the correction in excessive high exports of all types of steels, though those of ordinary yen after the summer time, the reduction of the official steel products increased, decreased for the first time in rate, and the enforcement of the economic measures in five years due to the sharp decrease in those of pig iron September which scale was the largest in the past, and steel ingots/semi-finished steel, (see Table 1) caused the underlying tendency of business improve-Refiecting the trend of the above-mentioned domestic ment to recover, even if gradually, over the end of the and overseas demands,the production ofpig iron in 1995 year.was 74.9 million t, increasing by 1.13 million t or 1.5 ol.In this situation, the domestic demand for steel over 1994, and rising for three consecutive years.The products with the addition of the partial imaginary production, however, stayed below the 80 million t demand in expectation of the earthquake restoration level for five years running.The output of crude steel largely increased in the first half of 1995.However, the amountedto 101 .64 million t, an increase of 3.35 million delay in the restoration demandand the stagnation of t or 3,4"/o over 1994, exceeding the 100 million t mark the actual demanddue to high yen made it swing to for the first time in four years.By the type of furnace, a decrease in the latter half of 1995.The domestic de- the production of converter steel was 68.84 million t, an Table l.Output of blast furnace pig iron, crude steel and steel products by month.(unit: I OOOt/month)