Nisshin Kokan Expands the Coated Steel Pipe Sales to 10,000 tonnes/month

Nisshin Kokan cleared the target of monthly 10,000 tonnes of production and sales for coated steel pipe products under the 3-year plan to fiscal 2008 2 years ahead after the sales increased to more than 10,000 tonnes for coated products including zinc-aluminium-magnesium coated products (ZAM), galvanizing and aluminium coated products after October, which was 10% higher than a year earlier. The firm is one of the top makers in Japan when the domestic output of coated steel pipe is estimated to be around 360,000 tonnes per year. The firm is operating the facilities in Ibaraki and Aichi at full capacity to meet strong demand. The firm produces near 15,000 tonnes per month of steel pipe products including more than 10,000 tonnes of coated products, which contains around 6,000 tonnes of ZAM products. The demand increases for ZAM, which uses less zinc and has higher corrosion resistance, when zinc ingot price surged to more than double since late 2005. The firm also increases the sales of coated products through the small lot and timely delivery services. The users of temporally equipment leasing companies try to renew the equipments with 10 years or more life. They shift from galvanizing steel pipe to ZAM pipe products. ZAM demand is expanding to pipe piling for base of housing and transport rack and pallet.