Firm Steel Plate Price in Tokyo

Steel plate market price is firm with strong tone at 80,000 yen per tonne for products with 19 millimeters thick, 5 feet width and 10 feet length around Tokyo. The price is more than 95,000 yen with cutting process.The demand keeps firm for manufacturing industries such as shipbuilding, construction machine or industrial machine. The manufacturing industries are expected to maintain active in fiscal 2007 started April. However, the building and distributors markets are slow due to delay of building construction activities. Shearing processor source said the demand for construction became much slow and the future condition is unforeseeable.Domestic makers’ rolling schedule is still tight. The makers apparently cannot meet the delivery schedule for some spot orders. Some deliveries seem to be delay. Integrated steel maker source said the supply is expected to get tighter.Japanese plate import is expected to keep low due to tax return cancel by Chinese government.