JSCE's report on the cost of corrosion in Japan

Abstract

The first report on the cost of corrosion in Japan was published in 1977. The report estimated that the corrosion loss in Japan, which did not include indirect loss, was 1-2 per cent of GNP at that time. Since then, the industrial structure has drastically changed. The committee for the cost of corrosion in Japan was initiated in 1999 in the Japan Society of Corrosion Engineering (JSCE). Direct cost of corrosion in 1997 was estimated by the Uhlig method and compared with the past data which was estimated for 1975 by the same method. The direct cost of corrosion was found to be 3,938 billion yen at 1997 base which is equivalent to about S37.5 billion and is 0.77 per cent of GNP. The direct cost increased 1.54 times from 1975, but the much higher growth of GNP resulted in the decrease of the proportion of the direct cost to GNP. This may be caused by the improvement of the corrosion and production technology for corrosion resistant materials and surface finishing, and the continuing effort of education and training for scientists, engineers and technicians by the corrosion societies.