According to a survey by the Japan Ferrous Raw Materials Association, Japan's domestic consumption of ferrous raw materials totaled 122.64 million tonnes in fiscal 2011 (April 2011 to March 2012), down by 5.68 million tonnes or 4.4% YoY, of which pig iron accounted for 79.52 million tonnes, down by 4% YoY and ferrous scrap 43.12 million tonnes, down by 5.3% YoY.

The following are a summary of other findings in the survey.

Japan's domestic consumption of steelmaking raw materials totaled 115.71 million tonnes in fiscal 2011, down by 5.65 million tonnes or 4.7% YoY, when domestic crude steel production totaled 106.46 million tonnes whereby the steelmaking yield was calculated at 92%, up from 91.3% in the year before. The yield of LD converter steel stood at 91.4% in fiscal 2011, up from 90.5% in the previous year, while the yield of EAF steel indicated 94.2%, up from 94.1% then.

Of the steelmaking raw materials consumed in fiscal 2011, pig iron accounted for 79.08 million tonnes or 68.3%, down by 4% YoY and ferrous scrap 36.63 million tonnes or 31.7%, down by 6.1% YoY.

In fiscal 2011, LD converter operations at domestic steelworks consumed a total of 88.9 million tonnes of steelmaking raw materials, down by 6.7% YoY. Of the total, pig iron accounted for 78.73 million tons or 88.6% and ferrous scrap 10.17 million tonnes or 11.4%. Likewise, EAF operations consumed a total of 26.81 million of steelmaking raw materials, up by 3% YoY. Of the total, ferrous scrap accounted for 26.46 million tonnes or 98.7%, and pig iron 350,000 tonnes or 1.3%.

Source - TEX Report Limited

(www.steelguru.com)