Tokyo Steel Hikes Hot Coil by 2,000 yen/t

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing announced on Monday the firm increases the selling price of hot rolled coil and checkered plate coil by 2,000 yen per tonne for May order, for which the firm accepts until Wednesday. The hot coil price reaches 72,000 yen per tonne hitting the highest level since November 2004. The firm left the prices for the other products unchanged and said the firm already increased the prices for other items while hot coil demand gets active and the supply gets tight. The firm also launches deep hot rolled mild steel with drawing quality or SPHE grade for May order to serve automobile and appliances industries and sets 2,000 yen of the extra charge.The firm said worldwide steel demand keeps strong and the price keeps firm under growing economy in the world. The firm said the hot coil export price increased by US$ 20 to FOB US$ 620 per tonne for May-June shipment from April-June shipment. Under the tight supply at home and abroad, the firm increases the domestic price for the first time in 2 months.The firm sees slower demand for the main item of H-beam due to delay of building activity. Building constructors cannot change the design basically after the activation of revised low for building standards on June 20. Before the change, building certification process takes twice longer time than usual. The firm expects the delay is temporally and the strong demand will support the firm market price. Tokyo Steel increases the output by around 10% in May from April. The firm plans to produce near 140,000 tonnes of H-beam compared with 130,000-140,000 tonnes in April and less than 140,000 tonnes in March. The firm plans to produce 100,000 tonnes of hot coil in May under firm demand compared with 80,000 tonnes in April and March. The firm starts to produce larger sized H-beam with 700 by 300 millimeters width in May at Utsunomiya plant, which produces the products with from 125 by 125 mm to 600 by 300 mm. The firm starts the larger sized H-beam production at Utsunomiya when Kyushu plant started plate output. The Kyushu plant keeps the large sized H-beam output but the plant could shift to plate output depending on the production and sales conditions.