Structural Steel Market Price under Weak Tone in Tokyo

Structural steel market price is weak at 100,000 yen per tonne for SC steel and at 125,000 yen per tonne for chrome molybdenum steel in Tokyo. The amount of dealers’ trading is low. Dealer source said that the sales volume might decrease in August from July. The trading volume is gradually decreasing in the market, though which still sustains a certain level thanks to the active demand for industry machine, processing machine and automobile industry. Dealers’ order volume to makers is also declining due to the demand decrease and the slow trading at dealers. The inventory in the market has continued to rise. Some expect the demand for automobile increases in the last half of fiscal 2006 ending March 2007, while some expect the demand would not improve so much due to the delay of the inventory adjustment. The market price is likely to keep the weak tone for a while. The demand for large contractors maintains strong mainly for construction machine and automobile. Japanese automobile makers’ domestic output is decreasing, but the overseas output is increasing.