Small Bar Makers’ Output to Drops by 10-20% in July-Sep. around Tokyo

Small steel bar making electric furnace steel makers around Tokyo will reduce the output by 10-20% in July-September from April-June. They expand the planned maintenance to 7-12 days in the period to renew old facilities by stopping steel making and rolling operations though they stop the operations for a week every summer. The output is expected to decrease to less than 900,000 tonnes in July-September from around 1 million tonnes in April-June, which increased by 10% from April-June 2005. The local makers manage to meet strong demand in April-June when the supply gets tighter for growing condominium and office building demand around Tokyo. The output is estimated to be 320,000-330,000 tonnes in June after the high level at 340,000 tonnes in April and 330,000 tonnes in May. The makers reduce the output in July-September from April-June to renew old facilities and planned maintenance. Base sized small bar makers plan longer outage. Oyama plant of Tokyo Tekko will idle steel making and rolling operations from July 18 to July 24. Godo Steel’s Funabashi plant will stop steel making and rolling processes for 12 days from July 31 to repair rolling mill. Asahi Industries stops the steel making from August 25 to September 4 and stops the rolling from August 25 to September 3. Tsukuba plant of Itoh Iron & Steel will stop the steel making and rolling operations on August 15 and 16 and period between August 28 and September 3. Small sized bar makers also stop the operations. Kanto Steel stops the steel making and rolling operations from August 21 to 26 to introduce equipment to inject kerosene and oxygen into electric furnace. Mukoyama Steel Works stops the steel making between August 17 and 27 and stops the rolling between August 17 and 23. Sanko Seiko stops the steel making and rolling from July 24 to 28. Jonan Steel plans outage in September and October and Daiwa Steel plans to stop operation in February 2007.