Plate Price Keeps Flat in Tokyo

Plate steel market price is flat at around 82,000 yen per tonne for standard sized products with 19 millimeters thick, 5 feet width and 10 feet length and at 98,000 yen for cutting sheet around Tokyo.Small and middle searing processors keep low operation due to slower orders. Some building projects are postponed to the second half of 2007 or early 2008 due to the revision of Japanese building standard law. Major processors hold many order backlogs. The demand for shipbuilding, construction machinery and industrial machinery keeps favorable.On the other hand, steel plate supply is decreasing. Plate makers are reducing the supply for distributors and distributors’ inventory is decreasing around Tokyo. Especially, regular sized plates’ inventory is short mainly for SS grade. Dealer source said distributors can’t raise the selling price of regular size plates as long as the cutting sheet price maintains flat.