The Shipbuilders' Association of Japan (SAJ)'s member shipyards are expected to consume a total of approximately 3.03m tons of ship steel plates in the fiscal year of 2013, during April 2013 to March 2014, declining by 11% year-on-year.

SAJ members account for around 90% of the overall Japanese shipbuilders.

Meanwhile, recently Japanese shipbuilding industries have gained competitiveness against competitors from Korea and China, amid weaker yen. And they saw a massively expanded new orders year to date.

According to the latest data from the Japan Ship Exporters' Association, the domestic shipyards contracted a total of around 2.72m gt in March alone, sharply increased by 143.3% from the same month of last year.