PURPOSE: To enhance the mechanical characteristic and the generation efficiency of a plate for a fuel cell by forming each of a base plate and ribs by binding short carbon fibers with a mean length within a specified range by means of a carbonized matter.

CONSTITUTION: After short carbon fibers 10 with a mean length of 1∼5mm and short organic fibers or an organic matter are dispersed in water to make a dispersion, the dispersion is formed into a paper-like shape before it is dried to obtain a plate-like body with a thickness of around 0.5∼2.5mm. Next, after mixture consisting of short carbon fibers 12 with a mean length of 50∼300μ and organic short fibers or an organic powder is deposited in an under metallic mold, which is provided with many parallel grooves, in such a manner that the thickness of the deposited mixture is slightly larger than the depth of the grooves, the above plate- like body is superposed on the deposited mixture, then the opening of the under mold is closed with an over metallic mold before heating is performed at 100∼200°C to obtain a plate member in which short carbon fibers are bound together by means of a carbonized matter 11. Next, the thus obtained plate member, after being impregnated with a phenol resin diluted with methanol, is hardened by being heated at over the gelatinization temperature of the phenol resin while being pressed to obtain a porous hardened plate. The thus obtained porous plate, then, is sintered in an atmosphere of nitrogen at a temperature of over 1,000°C thereby obtaining a plate 1(2) consisting of a porous base plate 9 and ribs 7 provided on one surface of the plate 9.