2003 New Year's Message

On behalf of the Japan Iron & Steel Recycling Institute, I would like to wish all of you a very happy and prosperous New Year!

The results for last year greatly exceeded the forecast for our industry. While the forecast for crude steel production was 96,000,000 tons, production turned out to be 109,000,000 tons. The forecast for exports was 27,000,000 tons, but the actual exports were 36,000,000 tons. The price of scrap was forecast to be about 10,000 yen per ton, but it turned out to be 14,000 yen per ton. All of these results greatly exceeded the forecasts.

Production volume increased, and almost all products increased in price. The end effect was a pretty good year for steel-related industries.

At the same time, last year saw great progress in restructuring. Blast furnace mills consolidated into two groups, and it was reported that the steel divisions of the eight general trading companies regrouped into four companies.

In addition, there was considerable joint venture and merger activity among a number of distributors and processors. In this sense, restructuring helped to make it an easier "winter" for the Japanese steel industry, without giving the impression of it being just a transient spring day, so steady progress is being made.

With all of these developments, we have seen some very good results in the iron and steel recycling industry. First of all, revenues rose due to the rise in prices over the past year. At the same time, the size of the environmental business has grown consistently. This trend complements the trend in which iron and steel scrap volumes are reaching a peak, so the sales base is stabilizing. In the future, the environment for the Japanese steel industry will grow more difficult, so it will naturally be impossible to greatly exceed the forecasts as we did last year.

I would like to build a Japanese steel industry with a fresh spirit that is able to adapt to its environment.

Takao Suzuki, President, Japan Iron & Steel Recycling Institute