Tokyo Steel Gets Major Shipbuilding Plate Steel Standards

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing got standard of shipbuilding steel products for Korean Register of Shipping (KR) grade. With the KR standard, the firm can sell the shipbuilding grade plate after the firm already got the standard for Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (NK), American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and Lloyd’s Register (LR). The firm launched the shipbuilding plate at 80,000 yen per tonne for NK and KR grades for August order. The firm tries to market the new item in shipbuilding boom South Korean market.

Tokyo Steel produces the plate steel at monthly 20,000 tonnes level against 50,000 tonnes of capacity at Kyushu plant after the commissioning in January 2007. The firm tries to sell the high valued products and shipbuilding is one of the main targets. The firm with KR standard tries to enter the South Korean market.

Plate steel export price is around US$ 720 per tonne for standard grade and shipbuilding plate export price is US$ 70-80 higher than standard grade. Plate supply is getting tighter when the strong worldwide demand for shipbuilding and construction and industrial machinery. Especially, shipbuilding plate demand is expected to keep high for a while.

Tokyo Steel will get standard of Det Norskes Veritas (DNV). The firm tries to expand the plate sales under the strong demand through the variety of products line.