Structural Carbon Steel Price Show Strong Tone in Tokyo

Japanese special steel makers and integrated steel makers announced price hike for structural carbon steels by 10,000 yen per tonne for distributors and contracted users from April. The market price seems to bottom out with downtrend of dealers’ inventory around Tokyo. The market price is expected to increase thanks to the makers’ hikes, less market inventory and higher material price such for chrome.Market price of machine structural steel keeps flat with potential increase 102,000-105,000 yen per tonne for carbon steel (SC) and 125,000-127,000 yen for chrome-molybdenum steel (SCM) around Tokyo. The price would up after Japanese long holidays in early May.Japanese major special steel makers including Daido Steel and Aichi Steel announced output reduction mainly for distributors in April-May after the price hike. Dealer source expected the market inventory would be adjusted and the market price could turn upward especially for SC. SC steel demand for contracted users keeps favorable for automobiles, construction and working machines, while the demand for distributors is relatively slow.Dealers’ inventory decreased by 1.3% to 37,847 tonnes for SC Steel around Tokyo in February from a month ago, while increased by 1.3% to 18,080 tonnes for SCM. Dealers’ sales increased by 14.8% to 36,914 tonnes for SC in February from a month earlier while decreased by 0.7% to 19,601 tonnes for SCM, according to special steel dealers’ association. SC steel demand is steady.