According to foreign media's June 11 news, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) issued a forecast report on Monday, predicting that the demand for conventional carbon steel in the Japanese construction industry will decline by 4.4% year-on-year to 1.65 million in July. Tonnes, which remained range-bound compared to June.

The demand forecast of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in July showed that steel demand is expected to increase by 1% year-on-year and by 11.4% from the previous month to 390,000 metric tons; demand for small bars will decrease by 8.2% year-on-year, down 8.3% from the previous month to 550,000 metric tons.

Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport officials responsible for the prediction did not comment on Tuesday, but a Tokyo-based construction steel trader said that the monthly demand forecast for ordinary carbon steel in July of 1.65 million metric tons was higher than the monthly average during the April-June period.

He said: "We do not worry that the demand for construction steel in July will decline year-on-year. We expect that demand will increase from summer."

According to data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of the People's Republic of China, the average monthly demand for ordinary carbon steel in the construction industry from April to June was 1.58 million metric tons.

According to the latest data from the Japan Iron & Steel Federation, in April, Japan produced a total of 336,700 metric tons of H-beam steel, which was 8.3% higher than the same period of last year but 7% lower than the previous month. The output of small bars reached 744,900 metric tons, which was a year-on-year increase of 0.9% but fell by 0.2% from the previous month.