Japan Steel Plate Demand Increases in 2H of F2007

Japanese steel plate demand is expected to continue uptrend in the second half of fiscal 2007 ending March 2008. Nippon Steel forecasts the domestic demand for steel plate would increase by about 6% to about 5.7 million tonnes in 2H of fiscal 2007 compared with 1H of fiscal 2007 based on steel makers’ order acceptance volume. The demand keeps expansion when manufacturing industries maintain favorable such for shipbuilding, construction machinery or industrial machinery. Integrated steel makers have no excess capacity to supply more steel plate. Consequently the supply would be tighter in 2H than 1H.Steel plate demand seemed to increase by 2-3% to about 5.36 million tonnes in 1H of fiscal 2007 compared with 5.24 million tonnes in 2H of fiscal 2006, according to Nippon Steel. The firm expects the demand continues uptrend and would show higher growth rate in 2H of fiscal 2007 than 1H of fiscal 2007.The demand would increase by 6-7% to about 2.45 million tonnes for shipbuilding in 2H of fiscal 2007 compared with 2.3 million tonnes in 1H of fiscal 2007 while by 9% to about 1.09 million tonnes for construction and industrial machineries, according to Nippon Steel. Steel plate demand for shipbuilding especially keeps high level since Japanese shipbuilders have order backlogs for 3-4 years.The firm prospects steel plate demand for steel frames and bridges would increase by 300,000 tonnes to about 600,000 tonnes in 2H of fiscal 2007 compared with the same period of fiscal 2006. The demand for steel frame is expected to increase for the big construction projects such as Sharp’s Sakai factory, an expansion of Haneda airport or the redevelopment of Tokyo metropolitan district.