Nichia Steel to Hike Steel Wires by More Than 30,000 yen/t

Hyogo based wire maker, Nichia Steel Works increases the selling price of carbon steel wire products by more than 30,000 yen per tonne on February 21 shipment. The firm tries to improve the profitability by covering higher cost for transport and materials in order to keep the stable supply. The firm said the hike includes unrealized hike since October 2007 and higher cost while the firm tries to cover the higher cost when the rod supply decreases by around 20%. The rod price is expected to increase by more than 20,000 yen per tonne for April. The cost up could be around 35,000 yen per tonne. The firm decided the 30,000 yen hike to cancel lower zinc ingot price than before. The firm will start the notice to users and distributors for the hike for all products including steel wire, galvanizing wire and zinc-aluminium alloy plating wire. The firm tries to get the higher price to keep stable supply under tight supply of the material rod.