Firm Rebar Price in Tokyo

Concrete reinforcing steel bar market price is firm at 68,000 yen per tonne for base size with 19 millimeters diameter around Tokyo. The local output is expected to decrease to around 300,000 tonnes in July when 3 makers are in outage. The supply gets tighter when they ship more than the output. A maker source said the firm can keep the delivery after the firm built inventory by June. However, more makers plan outage in August and the trading firm and distributors concern the delivery short. The makers try to keep the delivery schedule during the output reduction. The market price is flat due to slower transactions. The distributors expect the order from general contractors will increase after the summer while smaller distributors reduce the inventory. Some dealers said the users are reluctant to order now due to the makers’ mixed indications for supply balance.