Stock of 3 Kinds of Steel Sheets Likely to be Around 4 Million Tonnes in the end of February

The domestic stock of the 3 kinds of steel sheets (hot-and-cold rolled, and surface-treated steel sheets) is likely to be 4-4.1 million tonnes in the end of February at earliest. That in the end of last November and December decreased around 3% from the previous month; that in November did 2.8%; that in December did by 3.5% to 4.27 million tonnes. The newest stock had decreased 2-3% per month. So that in January would be around 4.15 million tonnes. The domestic blast furnace steel makers promote the stock adjustments, which have been effective so far. As for the stock change after the stock increase became serious, the newest stock recovered to the level in June-July 2005 from that in August of the year which reached the peak. The makers’ stock movements are almost the same of the whole stock movements. On the other hand, the stock adjustments are around one month late compared with the makers. In particular, the stock of coil centers reached the peak last September-October of the nearest period. Reduction of the stock by the centers is not promoted because it seems that the shipment for companies’ sales hits the wall due to shifting to strings and centralization of the purchasing. Nonetheless, the whole stock is likely to decrease. As the demand level in January-March is high mainly for automakers, some of the stocks increase according to the demand situations. But domestic blast furnace steel manufacturers aim at accelerating completion of the stock adjustments taking into consideration the demand field and industry sector. They expect the decrease to around 100,000 tonnes per month.