Weak Stainless Plate Price in Tokyo

Stainless steel plate market price is weak at around 290,000-300,000 yen per tonne for SUS304 hot rolled coil cut plate and at around 460,000 yen for plate mill products around Tokyo. Dealers’ shipment is slow. Dealers’ inventory adjustment has advanced but their sales are decreasing by around 50% from the peak period. Some dealers are widely reducing the reselling price. On the other hand, nickel series cold rolled stainless sheet market price hit the bottom.

Shearing processors’ sales grew stagnant. The amount of hot rolled stainless plate sales by shearing processors decreased by around 50% to 6,014 tonnes in April from the peak period of October-December 2006. A maker source said the orders from overseas importers recovered to the same level of the first half of last year. Nickel price is around US$ 6.5 per pound with potential upsurge. The market price is expected to rise with the demand recovery.