Japan Steel Structure Building Demand to Rise 3% in F2007

Japanese steel demand for steel structural building will increase by 3% to 7.6-7.7 million tonnes in fiscal 2007 started April from fiscal 2006, according to estimated by Sumitomo Metal Industries. The plate demand will increase by 100,000 tonnes to 1.3 million tonnes due to more large scale building construction while H-beam demand increases slightly to 4.1 million tonnes. The firm expects the plate supply gets tighter when the domestic supply has no room for output increase under strong demand for shipbuilding and other applications. With the supply condition, building plate price could increase more. Plate supply is already tight. Sumitomo Metals said the building plate lead time is 60-90 days compared with normal 40-50 days. The firm expects the lead time will get longer. The Kashima works operates plate mill at full capacity and cannot meet additional demand. The firm tries to keep stable supply but has to reject some of the order. The firm estimates Japanese steel demand for steel structural building increased to 7.4 million tonnes in fiscal 2006 from 7.2 million tonnes in fiscal 2005. The firm said H-beam demand increased to 4 million tonnes from 3.8 million tonnes and building plate demand increased to 1.2 million tonnes from 1.12 million tonnes.