MTokyo Steel Manufacturing Co, Japan's biggest maker of construction steel, will raise production to 180,000 tons in April, up 20 percent from last month in response to a rebound in steel demand throughout Asia.
The electric-furnace steelmaker's Okayama Mill in western Japan will increase output of hot-rolled steel sheet and pickled sheet, while its Kyushu plant will boost steel plate output. In addition to increasing the amount of scrap iron processed in electric furnaces, the mills' operating hours will also be extended.
Capacity utilisation, which was at 50 percent of peak utilisation in March, will be raised to 60 percent in April. Plans are for output to be raised further to 200,000 tons in May, with capacity utilisation projected to reach nearly 70 percent.

Posco, the world's No. four steelmaker raised its annual sales target after posting a near four-fold rise in quarterly profit, as economic recovery drove demand from China and manufacturers of autos and home appliances. South Korea's Posco, the first of Asia's big steel firms to report March quarter results, posted a 1.45 trillion won (US$1.30 billion) operating profit, versus the year-earlier's 373 billion won and 1.6 trillion won three months before. The results were broadly in line with a mean forecast of 1.5 trillion won by analysts. Posco raised its 2010 sales target by 8 percent to 31.9 trillion won and crude steel output forecast by 100,000 tonnes to 34.5 million tonnes, expecting the global steel industry to continue its recovery this year. After agreeing to pay nearly double for iron ore imports and accepting a quarterly pricing system instead of annually fixed deals, Asian steel mills are expected to start raising product prices in the current quarter. But the flagging construction and shipbuilding industries may hold back steelmakers' efforts to fully pass on their higher costs to customers, denting the second-half earnings outlook.

Domestic long and flat steel products will see substantial price increase at least for the next three months following an imminent shift in the annual iron ore contracts to quarterly pricing by the world's top three iron ore mining companies. The cost of iron ore, the major raw material for steel making to Asian steelmakers could now rise 80 percent to 100 percent or US$110 to US$120 per tonne under the new pricing mechanism, said industry players.This compared with US$60 per tonne, the settled iron ore price for 2009/2010 annual contracts.
Vale SA of Brazil, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto Group have considerable bargaining clout, controlling two-thirds of the US$88 billion global seaborne iron ore trade.
AmResearch, in its latest steel report, said regional export prices of semi-finished and finished steel products were already on an uptrend after the Chinese New Year break.
Some Malaysian steel millers have also resumed their export orders for billets to ASEAN region at US$450 per tonne last December. Billet prices have since rebounded by about 33 percent to US$600 per tonne currently.
Malaysian Iron and Steel Industry Federation (Misif) president Chow Chong Long in a report said there was a huge potential for local steel bar prices to trade above the current RM2,300 to RM2,400 per tonne level.
"Local steel millers, like their international counterparts, will be affected by the shorter-term iron ore contracts. There is no choice but to pass the higher iron ore cost to our customers," he added. Chow said steel demand was also expected to accelerate in the coming months with rising orders from the ASEAN region, structurally weak US dollar and resurgence in domestic steel consumption.
In China, the current spot steel price had surged US$150 to US$155 per tonne compared with US$60 to US$80 per tonne last year. On the overseas front, ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, was reported as saying that its end-product prices would likely increase by 21 percent in the second quarter of this year.