Flat Dealers’ Sheet Market in Tokyo

Sheet steel market price is flat at 68,000-69,000 yen per tonne for hot rolled sheet, at 74,000-76,000 yen for pickling steel and at 80,000-82,000 yen for cold sheet around Tokyo.The demand is recovering for building construction then is decreasing for automobile or electronic products. The shipment by dealers keeps slower. Especially, coil centers’ operation rate is decreasing due to downturn of Nissan Motors’ production.Moreover, the inventory in the market is increasing. Japanese inventory of hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated sheet steel for domestic shipment held by makers, distributors and processors increased to 4.07 million tonnes at the end of April, which is expected to more increase at the ended of May.Japanese integrated steel makers are mulling to raise their selling price of steel sheet for distributors following for re-rolling makers. Distributors can’t sell in cheaper price when they can’t get cheap products and large users are increasing integrated purchases.