Japan Sheet Steel Stock Drops by 1.8% in March

Japanese hot, cold and coated sheet steel inventory held by makers, distributors and processors decreased by 1.8% to 4.011 million tonnes at end of March from February. The level is regarded as normal level when the stock was 0.4% from a year earlier, which was the first drop in 11 months. The makers’ inventory deceased by 4.4% to 1.724 million tonnes at end of March from February. The inventory increased by 0.6% to 777,000 tonnes for distributors and by 0.1% to 1.51 million tonnes for processors. The stock deceased by 1.9% to 2.104 million tonnes for hot rolled flat steel, by 0.4% to 687,000 tonnes for cold rolled flat steel and by 2.2% to 1.22 million tonnes for coated steel. Nippon Steel sees the demand keeps firm for manufacturing and developing countries. However, the firm is still cautious for potential downside move with slowing US economy and buyers’ speculative purchase under higher price expectation.