Tokyo’s Rebar Makers Plan Longer Summer Time Outage

Concrete reinforcing steel bar makers around Tokyo plan longer summer time maintenance outage than previous year while they usually stop operation during period with higher electricity cost. The base sized rebar makers plan to stop operation for averaged 11 days and maximum 18 days to reduce the production under very slow demand. A rebar maker official said the firm tries to improve the supply balance when the rebar sales are very low level. The makers try to improve the supply balance through longer maintenance outage.

The base seize maker of Godo Steel’s Funabashi plant in Chiba plans to stop operation from July 24 to August 6. Tokyo Tekko’s Oyama plant in Tochigi plans to stop steel making operation from July 7 to July 24 and to stop rolling mill from July 7 to July 17. Itoh Iron and Steel’s Tsukuba plant in Ibaraki plans to stop operation from August 24 to 29. Asahi Industries plans to stop operation from August 24 to September 6. JFE Bars & Shapes’ Kashima plant plans 5 days operation stop in August.

The smaller sized rebar maker of Kanto Steel plans to stop operation from August 24 to 30. Sanko Seiko plans to stop steel making and rolling operation from July 27 to 31. Daiwa Steel’s Saitama plant and Jonan Steel plan no stoppage but they will keep reducing the production level.

The rebar makers around Tokyo operate at 20-30% lower than a year earlier level. The production is higher than 50% or more production cut in January-March. The national rebar production was 760,000 tonnes in May, which was 8% higher than April and 27% lower than a year earlier. The makers try to improve the supply balance through the major operation stop when the supply could be higher than the demand level.