Tokyo Steel to Market Plate Steel

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing will launch steel plate products in the month. The president Toshikazu Nishimoto said the firm tries to start the sales as early as for February order, for which the firm plans to start accepting the order on January 22, depending on the check of the quality and operations when the firm starts hot running test at the mill in Kyushu plant in Kitakyushu from January 15 after the completion of construction by the end of 2006. The firm tries to shift to flat rolled products through the entry to plate market through the new mill with 600,000 tonnes of annual output capacity and ability to make products with 1,500-2,000 millimeters width and 9-60 mm thick. The firm replaced angle rolling mill, which stopped operation in August 2005, with new plate mill facilities including a continuous slab caster, rolling mill and finishing line for 25 billion yen. The firm will supply plate for industrial and construction machinery and construction applications. With the plate mill, Tokyo Steel’s flat products production increases to 50% of total output though the firm’s long products output represents 60% of estimated 3.3 million tonnes of production at 4 plants in the year to March 2007.Mr. Nishimoto said Kyushu plant tries to serve the users through the plate and beam supply depending on the market condition after the firm starts plate products with steel source from existing electric furnace. The firm also constructs Tahara plant in Aichi starting operation in October 2009. With the new electric furnace plant with annual 2.5 million tonnes of sheet steel output capacity, flat rolled products become major products for the firm instead of the current long products. The firm tries to shift to flat products through the new mills.