Tokyo Steel Raises Hot Rolled Sheet and Rebar by 2,000 yen/t

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing announced on Monday the firm increases the selling price by 2,000 yen per tonne for concrete reinforcing steel bar, hot rolled flat steel and checkered plate for distributors for December order, which the firm accepts until Wednesday. The firm takes chance under firm demand at home and abroad. The firm said the export increases under lower yen rate and the higher demand increases the facility run rate. The firm left the prices unchanged for other items while the firm revised the extra charge for hot-dip galvanizing steel to cover higher zinc price. The firm increases the price for the first time in 7 months for rebar and in 6 months for hot rolled steel and checkered plate. The firm expects steel makers will select the order when general contractors finished order for immediate use of long products. The firm will reduce the output of H-beam in January and February. The firm got export order for hot rolled coil at FOB US$ 530 per tonne and for H-beam with larger size at US$ 600 for January-February shipment to Southeast Asia. The firm is getting more export order under lower yen rate. The firm increases the extra charge of hot-dip galvanizing steel by 2,000-9,000 yen per tonne. The firm tries to cover higher zinc price when domestic zinc ingot price reaches more than 500,000 yen per tonne, which is near double from a year ago. The firm restarted the sales of cut sheet items including hot rolled, pickling and checkered plate for December order after the resumption of the operation at Okayama plant from 2-week idle due to trouble in late October. The firm expects the H-beam output will decrease to less than 140,000 tonnes in November from 150,000 tonnes in October while the hot coil output keeps monthly 70,000-80,000 tonnes. See attached Excel file “Dec2006_TokyoSteelSalesPrice.xls”