Firm Plate Steel Price in Tokyo

Plate steel market price regains the increasing mood around Tokyo after temporally cooling in May and June. The dealers try to increase the reselling price after Nippon Steel announced 10,000 yen per tonne hike for August order. The market price level could increase more with pressure by supply side. The demand is strong for shipbuilding and construction and industrial machinery. The demand is also firm for major building. However, the supply is short for the strong demand despite of the effort to increase the output. The supply gets tighter while the steel making input cost increases. The pressure impacts on slow distributors’ market lifting the price level. Local dealers sell the materials at 120,000 yen per tonne for standard size with 19 millimeters thick, 5 feet width and 10 feet length and at around 140,000 yen for cut processed materials around Tokyo. The dealers’ shipment gets slower when the demand slows down for small sized building and the buyers secure the inventory in January-March period. The dealers cannot be aggressive when they lose the transaction when they increase the offer. Nippon Steel increased the selling price by total 40,000 yen per tonne through the hikes in March, May and August. The price level is estimated to be around 120,000 yen. The processors pay 118,000-120,000 yen per tonne for materials to process. The dealers and processors try to pass higher cost price on the market. Other steel makers also try to increase the selling price providing another pressure on the distributors’ market.