Tokyo Steel to Hike All Steel Items by 15,000-23,000 yen/t

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing announced on Monday the firm increases the selling price of all steel products by 15,000-23,000 yen per tonne for distributors for April order, which the firm accepts until Wednesday. The firm tries to pass higher cost for ferrous scrap by the widest hike. The firm stops acceptance of new order for export and domestic spot transaction due to less availability of ferrous scrap. The firm increases the price by 15,000 yen per tonne to 95,000 yen for concrete reinforcing steel bar, to 111,000 yen for H-beam, to 100,000 yen for hot rolled coil and to 117,000 yen for plate. The firm sees international steel price increases under weak US dollar while domestic demand recovers for major building and plants. The firm increases the H-beam size extra charge by 2,000 yen to 4,000 yen per tonne for 700 by 300 millimeters adding on price for base size of 200 by 100 mm. The firm also increases the rebar grade extra charge by 2,000 yen to 3,000 yen for SD345, to 5,000 yen for SD390 and to 10,000 yen for SD490 adding on base price for AD295A.With limited availability of ferrous scrap, the firm estimates the raw steel output decreases by around 15% to around 250,000 tonnes in March from February. The firm concerns scrap availability while the firm plans 2-week maintenance for Kyushu and Utsunomiya plants in the month. The firm purchased 35,000 tonnes of scrap from USA delivered in May. The firm expects the hot coil output halves to 50,000-60,000 tonnes in March from February while the H-beam output is flat at 120,000 tonnes. The firm tries to minimize the export volume to secure domestic supply and the export rate for sales decreases to less than 30% in April from current more than 30%.