Weak Steel Plate Price in Tokyo

Plate steel market price is flat at around 90,000-95,000 yen per tonne for standard sized product with 19 millimeters thick, 5 feet width and 10 feet length and 95,000-100,000 yen for cut processed plate around Tokyo. The price is likely to decrease more under slow demand.

The demand is still slow for mid- and small-sized building including condominium, which is the main target for the distributors. The demand for civil works is also uncertain when the new ruling party tries to cut the budget. A plate processor expects the low level demand could continue through first half of 2010 when the demand shows no sign to recover.

The demand for construction machinery is around 70% lower level of a year earlier level. The activity is very slow for mining machine while the demand started to recover for some applications of machine. A plate processor mainly for construction machinery said the processors’ capacity utilization could take a couple of years to reach 70% level while the demand is expected not to decrease more.