Uncertain Plate Market in Tokyo

Steel plate market price is flat at 87,000 yen per tonne for standard sized products with 5 millimeters thick, 5 feet width and 10 feet length and around 100,000 yen for cut processed material at the dealers’ selling price around Tokyo. The transaction is uncertain due to major earthquake while the market price increased after the makers announced 20,000 yen of price hike for April. The dealers wait and see aftermath of the national disaster.

Some dealers’ facilities are damaged by the earthquake. Other dealers also cannot operate process machines fully due to limited availability of water and power supply. The plate demand also decreases when many construction and industrial machinery plants stop or reduce the operations after the quake.

Plate inventory held by the plate processors decreased by 0.1% to 96,336 tonnes around Tokyo at end of January from December, according to the processors’ group. The inventory represented 169% of the shipment, which was 4.6 percentage points higher than December level. The inventory is normal level but could be tight when the demand could increase to reconstruct the damaged areas.

The dealers normally would increase reselling price when plate makers increase the selling price for April shipment. However, the dealers would watch the market trend this month under uncertainty.