According to the statistics of Japan Iron and Steel Federation, the domestic production of crude steel is on a declining trend, and it is feared to cause a decrease in the gas consumption by blast furnaces and affect the production of argon for user requirements.

The crude steel output at 8.42 million tons in May 2021 turned out to be on a decrease trend. Although once recovered in March 2022, it dropped again to 7.47 million tons in April of the year.

The trend seems to have been caused mainly by the decreased demand of steel plates for the automobile industry.　No upward trend is anticipated in the demand of iron and steel for the automobile industry. In fact, for instance, Toyota decided to reduce its production to 50,000 cars in June following the reduction of the domestic output by 50,000 cars from the original plan for May.

Also, at the side of blast furnace iron and steel production, Nagoya Works of Nippon Steel announced on June 3 to postpone its schedule to set up the blast furnace for the reason of the delayed recovery of demand for iron and steel, although the repairing of Blast Furnace No.3 by June this year has been on the way. No concrete schedule to set it up seems to has been made out yet.

As far as the iron and steel manufacturers keep reducing their production, the operation of oxygen plants for blast furnaces will decline and the output of argon of the byproduct will also decrease accordingly.



On the other hand, the demand of argon in general is on an increasing trend. According to JIMGA’s statistics, liquid argon delivered in 2021 showed an increase by 5.8% comparing with last year. The increase was led by the delivery for wafers which is lasting even after April of this year. The strong tone is anticipated to continue from now on.

In the supply of argon, there will not be any significant disorder in the demand/supply balance in general, except for a tight situation due to a periodical plant maintenance. Taking into account of the reorganization or replacement with electric furnaces of the domestic blast furnaces, it is feared that the production also may come across a tight situation from a midterm or a long-term viewpoint.