Production and Technology of Iron and Steel in Japan during 2023

This chapter reviews the conditions in the global economy, the Japanese economy, the world iron and steel industry and the Japanese iron and steel industry during 2023.In the global economy, the pace of recovery remained slow due to the triple handicap of the crisis in Ukraine, the slowdown in the Chinese economy and the deterioration of the situation in the Middle East.In the world as a whole, the real growth rate against the previous year declined from 3.5% in 2022 to 3.1% in 2023 and is also expected to remain at 3.1% in 2024. 1) By region, the estimated real growth rate in 2023 was + 2.5% in the United States, + 0.5% in the EU, + 5.2% in China, + 6.7% in India and + 1.9% in Japan.Because the Chinese economy is experiencing a financial crisis due to the collapse of the real estate bubble coupled with a high youth unemployment rate exceeding 20% 2) and tensions in the global military situation show no signs of easing, it is difficult to say that the outlook for the global economy is bright.Moreover, the struggle for hegemony between the United States and China, which extends as far as infrastructure investment, also shows no signs of ending. 3)he Japanese economy has continued to follow an essentially horizontal course for about 30 years, since the second half of the 1990s (based on the transition of nominal GDP (own currency)). 4)While Japan's national burden rate has risen to slightly under 50%, 5) real wages have also declined for 20 consecutive months, 6) and Japan now has the highest relative poverty rate among the G7 countries (Group of 7 advanced countries). 7)Although the government has worked out "comprehensive measures for completely breaking away from deflation," 8) private-sector measures, including wage increases and promotion of investment, are also needed, and the effect of demand creation must be closely monitored.Deflation, that is a prolonged period of inadequate demand, appears in the form of a decrease in supply capacity.The introduction of foreign labor is one possible response, but social confusion due to deterioration of public security, etc., as seen in the European countries to date, is a concern.Thus, in order to completely overcome deflation, it is desirable to transition to strong growth by increasing demand creation, which is an effective approach in Japanese's domesticdemand based economy.