Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Increases Steel Plate Export

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing, Japanese largest electric furnace steel maker, is exporting steel plate at 10,000 tonnes per month mainly for shipbuilders in South Korea. The demand is strong for shipbuilding, machinery and plant in South Korea. The firm will raise steel plate operations from 2 shifts to 3 shifts a day in Kyusyu works and plans to increase the production to over 30,000 tonnes per month. The firm will expand the steel plate business in export market mainly for South Korea.Tokyo Steel Manufacturing started steel plate production in January at 20,000-25,000 tonnes per month. The firm’s steel plate export ratio to the total sales exceeded 50% in the first half of fiscal 2007 ended September thanks to the strong export market. The firm exports plate for South Korea, Canada, UAE or Taiwan. The export rate is expected to rise more in 2H.The firm already acquired standards of shipbuilding steel products for Korean Register of Shipping (KR) grade, the standard for Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (NK), American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and Lloyd’s Register (LR). The firm’s current plate export for shipbuilding is 5,000 tonnes per month and will increase to around 10,000 tonnes next year.