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

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing announced on Tuesday the firm increases the selling price by 2,000-3,000 yen for the steel products except for plate and galvanizing steel for March order, which the firm accepts until Thursday. The firm increases the H-beam price to 77,000 yen per tonne after the hikes for 3 months in a row and increases the hot rolled coil price to 70,000 yen through the 2 months consecutive hikes. Those prices are more than 5,000-7,000 yen higher than prices of domestic integrated steel makers when Tokyo Steel takes chance under higher offshore market price. The firm increases the selling price by 2,000 yen per tonne for H-beam, checkered H-beam, I-beam, channel and U-shaped sheet pile for March order. The firm also increases the price by 3,000 yen for rebar and wire rod. The firm increases the price by 2,000 yen for flat steel products except for plate and galvanizing steel. The firm offers FOB US$ 550 per tonne for hot coil export to Southeast Asia and US hot coil market price is US$ 580. With the higher offshore market, the firm increases the domestic sheet price. The firm said US price is more than 80,000 yen per tonne for concrete reinforcing steel bar, more than 90,000 yen for H-beam and more than 100,000 yen for plate under firm demand. The firm said US buyers are willing to buy rebar at FOB 550 per tonne and the offshore demand increases. The firm said ferrous scrap market price keeps more than 30,000 yen per tonne and could reach 40,000 yen. Under the high level of scrap price, the firm tries to improve the profitability through the hike.*See the attached Excel file “Mar2007_TokyoSteelSalesPrice.xls”.