Steel Plate Market Price Continues to Lower, Tokyo

Steel plate market price is weak around Tokyo at 105,000-110,000 yen per tonne for standard sized product with 19 millimeters thick, 5 feet width and 10 feet length and at 110,000-120,000 yen per tonne for cut processed materials. Dealers’ shipment keeps stagnant with weak demand. The market price is likely to lower with dealers’ low sales and high inventories.

Dealers’ sales volume seems to be a half compared with a year earlier. The demand maintains stagnant from constructions, construction machines and industrial machines.

Plate inventories at local dealers increased by more than 40% year-on-year, according to the survey by Japan Steel Plate Shearing Industrial Guild. The inventory increased by 39.1% to 152,574 tonnes at the end of March from a year earlier around Tokyo. The inventory to shipment ratio worsened by 17 percentage points to 251.9% from a month ago.

The market price is remarkably declining for common products such as SS grade and non-standard products due to dealers’ inventory adjustment. Meanwhile, the market price stays at the relatively high level for SM grade, SN grade and special-thick products with stable demand from bridge construction and aseismic reinforcement engineering.

Dealers expect plate makers would reduce their selling price when raw material price is supposed to set lower than present in the price negotiation between overseas raw material producers and Japanese steel makers. Plate market price would continue decreasing.