Bottom Hitting Mood in the Market of Steel Plate for cut Length in Kansai to Spread

There is the mood of bottom hitting of the market of steel plate for cut length in the Kansai area, Western Japan; the price for 3×6 is around 75,000-77,000 yen per tonne because the movements of the products are recovering, adjustments of distributors’ stock of the products are completed, and the distributors avoid dealing with the lower prices. The current distributors’ stock ratio is 1.5-1.6 months. As there have been a lot of orders of large construction projects in the area since last summer, steel plate demand tends to increase there. So some forecast the market might rally early in fiscal 2006, the year that ends in March 2007.

The market of steel plate for cut length had risen to 81,000-82,000 yen per tonne for the size of 3×6 by around last January-February. But the market price had edged lower since last March-April because there was much amount of arrival of the products in January-March 2005 and the market for distributors declined. However, the new arrival of the import products decreased from last May, and the arrival in the recent period is around 20,000 tonnes per month. The stock of the imports at the quay is almost adjusted.

Further, domestic blast furnace steel makers have performed steel plate production adjustment and controlled acceptance of the products for distributors. In particular, NAKAYAMA STEEL WORKS, LTD., which has large influence on the cut length market, is producing the cut length steel plates according to orders from its customers.