Data from the Japan Iron and Steel Federation (JISF) revealed a decline in Japan's crude steel and hot-rolled steel production in April, both on a month-on-month and year-on-year basis. About 7.05 million tons of crude steel and 5.97 million tons of hot-rolled steel were produced during the month, reflecting a 2% and 8.4% decrease, respectively, from the previous month and a 3.1% and 4.8% decrease, respectively, from the same month a year ago.

From a product perspective, hot-rolled wide steel strips, thick steel plates, and lightweight bars saw production decreases of 8.1%, 14.3%, and 2.5% month on month, resulting in outputs of 2.8 million tons, 693,000 tons, and 628,000 tons, respectively.

From January to April, the output of pig iron, crude steel, and hot-rolled steel products fell by 2.1%, 1.2%, and 1.6% year on year, respectively, amounting to 20.43 million tons, 28.51 million tons, and 25.02 million tons, respectively.