Nippon Steel to Hike Special Steel Bar by More Than 20,000 yen/t

Nippon Steel prepares to increase the selling price of special steel bar by more than 20,000 yen per tonne for April shipment. The firm tries to pass the higher cost price through the first hike in 9 months when annual price of iron ore and coal should increase widely. Japanese special steel bar shipment will increase by around 4% to 9.932 million tonnes in fiscal 2007 ending March 2008 from record in previous year, according to Japanese integrated steel maker. The shipment is expected to increase by 2.6% to 10.191 million tonnes in fiscal 2008 from fiscal 2007. The supply could get tighter when the makers plan maintenances. The demand keeps firm when automobile industry, which represents around 80% of the domestic special steel bar demand, keeps high level operations while building demand is very slow. Japanese automobile output is expected to increase by around 2% to 21.1 million units including knockdown sets in fiscal 2008 from fiscal 2007.