Major steel producer Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp (NSSMC) expects demand and profit margins for steel to remain high in Japan for the next three years, a senior official has told Metal Bulletin.
The forecast is based on tight market fundamentals and healthy demand from downstream industries, as well as indirect demand for infrastructure projects associated with the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020."Demand for steel will remain high," Seiji Umemura said. "The tight demand and supply balance will continue in 2018 because macroeconomic growth is continuing at a moderate pace. The market will keep to current prices this year [and we will see] a healthy cost-profit balance."Umemura is NSSMC's director, general administration and marketing, Southeast Asia and India.The Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) said in a forecast last year that growth in Japan is expected to remain at 1% in 2018 and 2019, with the Bank of Japan expected to maintain an expansionary monetary policy and to continue with structural reforms that support the country's economy."Such forecasts are supported by the Japanese government's outlook on the domestic economy in 2018, which...