Japan Iron and Steel Federation gave the September data for steelmaking. Last month, the Japanese steelmakers have produced 8.44 million tons of steel. This figure is 1.5% lower than the result of September 2015. To Sep Japanese steel company over a five-month period showed a slight excess by 2015. In the first half of 2016−2017 financial year production figures reached 52.54 million tonnes. These results exceed those of last year by 0.9%.

National experts give their explanation of the decline. In their view, reduce to blame the unfavorable situation to be in. In Japan in the past six months, there is a reduction of costs of households. They account for around 2/3 of GDP. Consumption of steel products declined in the automotive sector at the end of the summer. Meanwhile in the construction sector depressed mood continues. The Japanese release of the armature is reduced for 25 months in a row. The difficulty is that the national producers are unable to offset the decline of domestic sales by the foreign market. Statistics show that over the eight-month period, the exported volume of steel rose to 27.67 million tons. Compared to the same period in 2015 growth was only 0.8%. While the supply of carbon steel products fell over the period by 2%. In numerical terms, it amounted to 18.42 million tonnes. Traditionally in this situation blame the suppliers of China. Also, Japanese manufacturers are complaining about high exchange rate of its currency against the dollar.

Their position was expressed by Executive Vice-President of the Corporation Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. Japanese authorities could consider measures that restrict the volumes of Chinese, Taiwanese and South Korean supplies. The reason for this approach will serve as the data growth in supply and unfavorable economic trends in the country. The national metallurgical company for the eight-month period of 2016 was able to expand the volume of steel exports. Comparison was made with analogous period of last year. However, problems are growing.

Leading Japanese corporations in the state that the increase in the cost of steel comes amid rising prices of coking coal. Since the beginning of October its cost has risen to 200 USD/ton.