According to the latest survey of Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japanese steel mills planned to increase crude steel production in the second quarter (April-June) to around 27 million tons, an increase of 3.4% year-on-year and a growth of 2% quarter-on-quarter respectively, mainly due to the stabilization of domestic demand and increase in export orders.

The planned exports this year in the second quarter wouldn't be very high after taking into account the low actual export volume in the second quarter of 2017 although steel mills have also rose their production for exports. Japanese steel mills planed to produce about 16 million tons of steel for domestic sales in the second quarter, up by 6.3% year-on-year and 2.3% month-on-month.

A building materials trader said that non-residential construction projects remained active and were expected to maintain growth during the summer. Therefore, the demand for construction steel would continue to increase, and the production would also keep relatively high.