Higher Plate Steel Price in Tokyo

Plate steel market price increased by 5,000 yen to around 120,000 yen per tonne for product with 12 millimeters thick, 5 feet width and 10 feet length without freight at dealers’ sites around Tokyo. The cut processed plate price is now 140,000 yen. The price could keep strong when the dealers try to increase the reselling price more under tight supply to cover higher cost price despite of the slow demand condition. Medium and small sized processors serving mainly for building are suffered from slower demand when the building start decreases for low rise building. The market price increase paced down when the processors and dealers experience major drop of the order receipt after speculative demand in and before April. The dealers’ inventory is slightly decreasing when domestic makers reduce the shipment for the dealers to meet higher demand for contract users including shipbuilding and construction machinery makers. The tight supply supports the higher price move.