Plate Dealers Offers Higher Price in Tokyo

Steel plate market price is flat at around 86,000 yen per tonne for standard size with 19 millimeters thick, 5 feet width and 10 feet length and 97,000-98,000 yen for cut processed material around Tokyo. The dealers try to increase cut processed material selling price to more than 100,000 yen when Tokyo Steel Manufacturing increased plate selling price by 3,000 yen to 75,000 yen for October order.

The dealers see plate market price would hit the bottom and try to increase the selling price after the announcement of price hike by Tokyo Steel. The demand would increase for construction when bridge building activity increases since September and large scale building projects start around Tokyo by the end of year.

Japanese steel makers’ plate output has been around 1 million tonnes per month. However, the dealers’ inventory increased by 2.6% to 100,591 tonnes around Tokyo at the end of August from July due to slow demand, according to the dealers’ group.