Firm Plate Steel Price in Tokyo

Plate steel market price is firm at around 82,000 yen per tonne for standard size with 19 millimeters thick, 5 feet width and 10 feet length around Tokyo. The dealers try to increase the reselling price after makers’ hike. The cut processed plate price increases toward 100,000 yen. The market price is likely to increase more when the dealers’ inventory value increases due to arrivals of high priced materials. The dealers’ shipment is still slow under very slow building demand due to transition process for new building standard. Very slow building starts reduce the dealers’ transactions. A shearing processor said the inventory is low level but enough for the current slow market. Domestic plate demand is strong for shipbuilding and construction machinery. The domestic supply is tight for the strong demand. The makers apparently reduce the supply for distributors by 20-30% from April-September period. With the lower supply, the dealers’ market could get tighter pressuring the market price.