According to the forecast made by the Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry (Meti), Japan’s steel demand will be at 27.85 million tons in the first quarter of 2014, up slightly by 0.6% year on year and increasing by 1.4% from a quarter ago.

Meti pointed out that the country’s construction demand mighty fall in the first quarter due to seasonal reasons but steel demand for housing might stay firm with the rush of new building orders ahead of a rise in consumption tax from April.

In addition, steel demand from manufacturing sectors such as auto production is recovering while that form shipbuilding seems to have bottomed.