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Japan's crude steel output to fall by 10.7% YOY in Q4

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) predicted that the crude steel output of Japan from October to December this year would fall by 10.7% YOY to 21.1 million tons due to the impact of COVID-19.

However, with the gradual recovery in manufacturing industry, METI predicted that Japan's crude steel output in the fourth quarter would increase by 12% compared with that of the third quarter. Based on this, it was estimated that the country produced about 18.84 million tons of crude steel from July to September.

Previously because of the continuous impact of COVID-19 on the demand of automakers and other buyers, METI predicted that Japan's crude steel production from July to September this year would fall to an 11-year low to 17.7 million tons.

METI also predicted that the domestic steel demand of Japan would reach 13.3 million tons from October to December, down by 10.7% YOY, but up by 5.4% MOM; steel export demand would reach 6.2 million tons, down by 8.7% YOY, but up by 1.5 % MOM.